Former US President Bill Clinton has defended his efforts to secure peace between Israelis and Palestinians, saying: “I killed myself to give the Palestinians a state."
Referring to his persistent efforts to bring Palestinians and Israelis to take steps toward peace, Clinton said: "I had a deal they turned down that would have given them all of Gaza.” The former US president made the remarks at an event last week in New Jersey in support of his wife Hillary's presidential campaign.
According to a report by 'Politico' magazine, he was interrupted by a heckler who yelled "What about Gaza?"
In response, Clinton defended his wife by saying "She and the Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt stopped the shooting war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
When the spectator replied "She said neutrality is not an option,"Clinon replied: "Depends on whether you care what happens to the Palestinians as opposed to the Hamas government and the people with guided missiles."
He went on to say: "We cannot really ever make a fundamental difference in the Middle East unless the Israelis think we care whether they live or die. If they do, we have a chance to keep pushing for peace. And that’s [Hillary's] position. Not to agree with the Israeli government on everything, not to pretend that innocents don’t die, not to pretend that more Palestinian children don’t die than Israeli children.
"But that we can’t get anything done unless they believe, when the chips are down, if somebody comes for them we will not let them be wiped out and become part of the dustbin of history,” the 42nd US president, who was in office from 1993 to January 2001, told his audience.
In his speech, Clinton also condemned the terror group Hamas for locating its rocket launchers in civilian areas, leading to higher casualties during Israel’s 2014 war with the terrorist group in Gaza. “Hamas is really smart. When they decide to rocket Israel, they insinuate themselves in the hospitals, in the schools, in the highly populous areas, and they are smart.
"They said they try to put the Israelis in a position of either not defending themselves or killing innocents. They’re good at it. They’re smart. They’ve been doing this a long time," said Bill Clinton.
