Topic: Newsmax
From a May 20 Newsmax column by Lowell Ponte:
Former Democratic President Bill Clinton also traveled to Israel for a historic celebration. But, being always a petty, point-scoring opportunist, Clinton exited the main door of Air Force One to greet Israeli leaders in front of news cameras while requiring Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich to exit by a rear door.
The liberal mainstream media depicted Gingrich as reacting petulantly to Clinton’s action. But the real victim of Clinton’s childish political act was not Gingrich but Israel.
The safety of the Jewish state depends on America’s unwavering bipartisan support.
By forcing America’s highest ranking Republican to the back of the bus, Bill Clinton signaled that he put an egotistical adolescent gesture of American politics above a life-or-death symbolic reaffirmation of unified American support for Israel.
This Clinton insult to ally Israel was shameful.
1) The "historic celebration" in question was the funeral of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Why does Ponte think this was a "celebration"?
2) Gingrich was depicted as "reacting petulantly" because he did, in fact, act petulant. Gingrich cited the incident as a reason he and the then-Republican-controlled Congress sent Clinton a continuing resolution they knew he would not sign, thus forcing a partial government shutdown. Further, as Clinton officials pointed out at the time, Gingrich was allowed to take his wife on the trip, while other officials' wives were bumped because there was no room on the plane, hardly the sign of an "insult."
3) Since when is Gingrich -- or, more to the point, Gingrich's ego -- synonymous with the state of Israel?
