A March 29 article in The Algemeiner newspaper described a phone call between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. According to Hoenlein, Clinton told him, “We need to all work together to return the special US-Israel relationship to constructive footing, to get back to basic shared concerns and interests.”
The statement hints at the problematic relationship between the two countries under President Barack Obama, but also sends a reassuring message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters in the US Jewish community. But Clinton didn’t stop there. True, this conversation with a senior American Jewish leader took place just days before Clinton officially announced that she was running again for the Democratic nomination for president, a race in which all the candidates walk on eggshells when it comes to Israel. Nevertheless, Clinton threw caution to the wind with the potentially tendentious remark, “We must ensure that Israel never becomes a partisan issue.”
