September 10, 2000

9:20 PM

From the latest chapter in "Don't Make a Clinton Mad"comes this 1998 photo released by the White House that shows Rick Lazio firmly shaking hands of Yasser Arafat with a bright smile on his face. Lazio had earlier criticized Bill Clinton for shaking the hand of Fidel Castro and Hillary for pecking on the cheek of Shuha Arafat in 1999. Lazio also accused Hillary to be supporting with her silence Shuha Arafat's factual charges of environmental pollutions in the occupied territories by the Israeli authorities. Unlike Lazio, Hillary at least has claimed Jewish ancestry. Lazio has no clue what he is up against.
posted by tamim (6 comments total)

I don't know why they are giving Clinton such a hard time. A handshake is a greeting not a United States policy.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 10:25 PM on September 10, 2000

The biter bit bit. Lazio and Clinton are playing rough-and-tumble with the Jewish vote in NYC. So far, her Hillariness seems to be winning by a wide margin.

I wouldn't call Lazio an amateur -- he's been around NY politics for quite a while now. But Giuliani wouldn't have made a mistake this obvious ...
posted by dhartung at 11:53 PM on September 10, 2000

I'm just glad tamim was prescient enough to point out the factual nature of Mrs. Arafat's claims-- the American Press universally derided her as telling egregious lies about the Zionist state.
posted by chaz at 12:02 AM on September 11, 2000

*ahem*

The Zionist state?

You'll forgive me if I politely ask why you chose that particular phrase, as it tends to have a bit of ugly baggage attached to it.
posted by solistrato at 8:22 AM on September 11, 2000

says who? i might be too young to remember when this phrased was first used, but i didn't know it held a negative connotation.
posted by capt.crackpipe at 10:58 AM on September 11, 2000

I think chaz was being sharply tongue-in-cheek, for that matter.
posted by dhartung at 11:52 AM on September 11, 2000