Twice-failed Democrat presidential candidate wanted the U.S. government to rig a Palestine election in 2006, a leaked audio recording has revealed.
According to the audio tape, recorded by former Jewish Press editor and staff writer Eli Chomsky, then-Senator Clinton (D-NY) admits that she pushed for the U.S. to do “something to determine who was going to win.”
Chomsky says he made the recording on September 5, 2006.
At the time, Hillary Clinton was running for a shoo-in re-election as a U.S. senator.
During her campaign, Hillary was making the rounds of editorial boards.
When Clinton visited Brooklyn to meet the editorial board of the Jewish Press, Chomsky recorded the conversation.
The tape was never released and has only been heard by the small handful of Jewish Press staffers in the room.
According to Chomsky, his old-school audiocassette is the only existent copy.
No one had heard the recording since 2006 until Chomsky came forward and played it for the Observer.
The tape is 45 minutes long and contains much that is no longer relevant, such as an analysis of the re-election battle that Sen. Joe Lieberman was then facing in Connecticut.
But a seemingly throwaway remark about elections in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority has taken on new relevance.
After Hillary was beaten by President Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential race, she has long insisted that the election was “rigged.”
The recording also has new significance in light of the recent Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel.
Speaking to the Jewish Press about the January 25, 2006, election for the second Palestinian Legislative Council (the legislature of the Palestinian National Authority), Clinton weighed in on the result.
The election was a resounding victory for Hamas (74 seats) over the U.S.-preferred Fatah (45 seats).
“I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories,” said Clinton.
“I think that was a big mistake.
“And if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win.”
Chomsky recalls being taken aback that “anyone could support the idea—offered by a national political leader, no less—that the U.S. should be in the business of fixing foreign elections.”
Some eyebrows were also raised when then-Senator Clinton appeared to make a questionable moral equivalency.
Regarding capturing combatants in war—the June capture of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit by Hamas militants who came across the Gaza border via an underground tunnel was very much front of mind—Clinton can be heard on the tape saying:
“And then, when, you know, Hamas, you know, sent the terrorists, you know, through the tunnel into Israel that killed and captured, you know, kidnapped the young Israeli soldier, you know, there’s a sense of like, one-upmanship, and in these cultures of, you know, well, if they captured a soldier, we’ve got to capture a soldier.”
Equating Hamas, which to this day remains on the State Department’s official list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, with the armed forces of a close American ally was not what many expected to hear in the Jewish Press editorial offices.
The use of the phrase “these cultures” is also a bit of a head-scratcher.
Shortly after, she said, “But if you say, ‘they’re evil, we’re good, [and] we’re never dealing with them,’
“I think you give up a lot of the tools that you need to have in order to defeat them…
“So I would like to talk to you [the enemy] because I want to know more about you.
“Because if I want to defeat you, I’ve got to know something more about you.
“I need different tools to use in my campaign against you. That’s my take on it.”
Discussing the need for a response to terrorism, Clinton said, “I think you can make the case that whether you call it ‘Islamic terrorism’ or ‘Islamo-fascism,’ whatever the label is we’re going to give to this phenomenon, it’s a threat.
“It’s a global threat. To Europe, to Israel, to the United States…
“Therefore we need a global response.
“It’s a global threat and it needs a global response.
“That can be the, sort of, statement of principle…
“So I think sometimes having the global vision is a help as long as you realize that underneath that global vision, there’s a lot of variety and differentiation that has to go on.”
Clinton’s comments appeared to be a push for globalism but it is not clear what she means by a “global vision with variety and differentiation,” however.
Chomsky said he sat on the tape for years over fears about provoking someone in a “position of influence.”
“I went to my bosses at the time,” Chomsky told the Observer.
“The Jewish Press had this mindset that they would not want to say anything offensive about anybody—even a direct quote from anyone—in a position of influence because they might need them down the road.
“My bosses didn’t think it was newsworthy at the time.
“I was convinced that it was and I held onto it all these years.”
According to Chomsky, Clinton was “gracious, personable and pleasant throughout” the interview.
Chomsky says Clinton spoke for about an hour with himself, managing editor Jerry Greenwald, assistant to the publisher Naomi Klass Mauer, counsel Dennis Rapps, and senior editor Jason Maoz.
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