Hillary Clinton on Thursday criticized campus protesters, saying young people “don’t know much” about Middle Eastern history.
“I’ve had many conversations, as you have, with many young people over the past several months,” she said on the MSNBC show. “Good morning Joe” on Thursday. “They don’t know much about the history of the Middle East, or frankly about history, in many regions of the world, including in our country.”
Mrs. Clinton then went on to imply that young people “don’t know” that if Yasir Arafat, the former leader of the Palestinian Authority, accepted a deal brokered by her husband, President Bill Clinton, then Palestine already has a state of their own. “It was one of the greatest tragedies of history that he couldn’t say yes,” she said.
The comments, made in response to a complex question about radicalization on college campuses from the show’s host, Joe Scarborough, were criticized on social media by those who said she Clinton, a professor of public and international affairs at Columbia University, was criticized. underestimating students capacity.
While some said they agreed with Clinton, others characterized her as a failure of government. Oslo peace process – a years-long effort to negotiate peace between Israel and Palestine that began in 1993 but ultimately failed – as a oversimplification.
“For Clinton to say this is really disingenuous,” Osamah F. Khalil, a history professor and Middle East expert at Syracuse University, said in an interview. He noted that in the run-up to the 2000 Camp David summit, where negotiations finally falteredMr. Arafat once warned former president Bill Clinton that “both sides are not ready.” He added that blaming the Palestinians directly was unfair, noting that there had been other missed opportunities for resolution. “Diplomacy is not about one-time mattress sales,” Professor Khalil said.
Clinton’s comments about students, he said, do not give them, nor the elite institutions that many are protesting, the credit they deserve.
The comments came after the student go out Clinton’s class in November to protest what they saw as the school’s role in publicly shaming students who had signed a statement saying the Israeli government was responsible for the war. Last month, others interrupted Mrs. Clinton’s visit to her alma mater, Wellesley College.
