Ex-president Bill Clinton urged Israelis over the weekend not to overreact to comments by newly elected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recommending that Israel be 'wiped off the map.'
Speaking at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on Saturday, Clinton acknowledged that the remark was 'outrageous,' but he cautioned that the Iranian leader was 'not elected because of his hatred for Israel or the West.'
'He was elected because of the economic distress of ordinary Iranians, and which he promised to relieve by giving them financial assistance,' Clinton explained, according to the Jerusalem Post.
He warned Israel not to act unilaterally when reacting to terrorist threats, saying that 'true peace and security can only come through principled compromise.'
So Clinton says Israel should compromise with those who want to see it destroyed? I wonder if he gives Bush the same advice, not to act unilaterally when dealing with Al-Qaeda. I seem to remember Clinton unilaterally shooting some ineffective rockets towards Afghanistan jihadi training camps - tsk, tsk, how could he react to a terror bombing in such a way?
I hope that this was taken way out of context. I expect such lunacy from Carter, but not Clinton.