Senate hopeful slams Israel's actions

BY GLENN THRUSH | Newsday Washington Bureau

July 26, 2006

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's Democratic foe Jonathan Tasini says that Israel - where he spent his teenage years - is violating international law and terrorizing civilians in Lebanon and Gaza.

When asked if Israel was acting like a "terrorist state" during an interview with the political blog Room 8, Tasini seemed to respond in the affirmative.

"It has certainly committed many acts of brutality and violations of human rights and torture," said Tasini, an American Jew who lived in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem from 1971 to 1980 with his father, a university professor.

"Terrorism is a very heavily laden word," he added in the interview with Room 8's Gur Tsabar, who is Israeli. "Are your actions in violation of the international norms of the Geneva Convention, and so on? And so I think it's sad to say, but it's clear, yeah."

Tasini's remarks were made public on a day when Clinton shrugged off his call for a debate, telling reporters yesterday that "We'll have to see how all of this develops."

Tasini later told Newsday that his answer was garbled and that he doesn't think Israel is a terrorist state. But he reaffirmed his opposition to its military tactics, a position shared by peace organizations in Israel.

His comments drew an immediate rebuke from Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson, who labeled his remarks "outrageous, deeply offensive and beyond the pale."

Tasini, who said his father fought "shoulder to shoulder" with assassinated Prime Minister and Clinton family friend Yitzhak Rabin during Israel's fight for independence, accused the senator of political pandering. "For simply pure political reasons, Hillary Clinton will not stand up and say the violence must stop - and that's costing lives," he said. "She's no friend of Israel when she essentially endorses this kind of war."

Clinton's support of a Palestinian state and alleged anti-Semitic comments in the 1970s drew the ire of some Jewish groups in 2000. But she's carefully mended fences and toed a staunchly pro-Israel line, refusing to criticize the Jewish state for its actions in Lebanon and Gaza.

Tasini, who submitted the 15,000 signatures necessary to get on the September ballot, has signed on to a League of Women Voters debate in September. Wolfson had no comment when asked if Clinton would attend.