Hillary Clinton on Thursday criticized campus protesters, saying younger folks “don’t know very a lot” concerning the historical past of the Center East.
“I’ve had many conversations, as you might have had, with quite a lot of younger folks over the past many months now,” she mentioned on the MSNBC present “Morning Joe” on Thursday. “They don’t know very a lot in any respect concerning the historical past of the Center East, or frankly about historical past, in lots of areas of the world, together with in our personal nation.”
Ms. Clinton then went on to indicate that younger folks “don’t know” that had Yasir Arafat, the previous chief of the Palestinian Authority, accepted a deal brokered by her husband, President Invoice Clinton, the Palestinians would have already got a state of their very own. “It’s one of many nice tragedies of historical past that he was unable to say sure,” she mentioned.
The feedback, made in response to a sprawling query about radicalization on college campuses from the host, Joe Scarborough, had been criticized on social media by those that mentioned that Ms. Clinton, a professor of worldwide and public affairs at Columbia College, was underestimating college students’ capability.
Whereas some mentioned they agreed with Ms. Clinton, others described her characterization of the failure of the Oslo peace course of — a yearslong try to barter peace between Israel and the Palestinians that started in 1993 however finally failed — as an oversimplification.
“For Clinton to say that is actually disingenuous,” Osamah F. Khalil, a professor of historical past and Center East skilled at Syracuse College, mentioned in an interview. He famous that within the lead-up to the summit at Camp David in 2000, the place negotiations finally faltered, Mr. Arafat had warned former president Invoice Clinton that “the 2 sides weren’t prepared.” To put blame squarely on the Palestinians was unfair, he added, noting that there had been different missed alternatives for an answer. “Diplomacy shouldn’t be a one-time mattress sale,” Prof. Khalil mentioned.
Ms. Clinton’s feedback concerning the college students failed to offer them, or the elite establishments at which many are protesting, due credit score, he mentioned.
The feedback come after college students walked out of Ms. Clinton’s class in November to protest what they perceived as the college’s function in publicly shaming college students who had signed a press release saying the Israeli authorities bore accountability for the conflict. Final month, others disrupted Ms. Clinton’s go to to her alma mater, Wellesley School.