Failed 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has a history of catching flak for her over-generalizations and pointed commentary that comes across as broadly disparaging to wide swathes of the population.
That happened again on Thursday when Clinton was sharply criticized after she suggested during an MSNBC interview that young Americans “don’t know very much” about history in general and the Middle East in particular, The New York Times reported.
Clinton’s remark was made concerning the anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian student protesters on college and university campuses nationwide — and, unfortunately, there is probably an element of truth within some of what she said.
Clinton says young people “don’t know very much” about Middle East history
Clinton had an extended appearance Thursday on MSNBC‘s “Morning Joe,” during which co-host Joe Scarborough at one point launched into a lengthy rant about “radicalized” students believing anti-Israel propaganda and not being aware of the full context and backstory of the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the unsuccessful prior efforts to achieve a peaceful “two-state solution.”
After Scarborough’s rant concluded, Clinton replied with a chuckle, “Wow. I don’t know where to start, Joe.”
“I want to make a couple of quick points because you raised things that need to be vented about,” she said. “First of all, I have had many conversations … with a lot of young people over the last many months now.”
“And you’re right — they don’t know very much at all about the history of the Middle East, or frankly about history in many areas of the world, including our own country,” Clinton said as she launched into her own soliloquy about the 2000 Oslo Accords in which her husband, then-President Bill Clinton, attempted to forge a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians — a deal that was ultimately rejected by then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, allegedly over fears that he’d be assassinated by Hamas or other Islamist extremists.
“This is a very important piece of history to understand if you’re going to take any kind of position with respect to what’s going on right now,” she added of the current conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
Critics take aim at Clinton
The Times reported that the pushback against Clinton’s commentary was swift and fierce from several young “historians” who claim to be experts on the Middle East and Israeli-Palestinian relations.
One historian shared a clip of a Palestinian student decrying a supposed genocide in Gaza during her graduation speech and wrote, “Looks like these students understand more than Hillary Clinton.” Another took issue with her recollection of the unsuccessful peace talks, shared a link to his own version of those events, and said, “The more accurate statement would be YOU know very little about the history of the negotiations.”
Then there was Syracuse University history professor and Middle East expert Osamah Khalil, who told The Times, “For Clinton to say this is really disingenuous,” and asserted that it was “unfair” to solely blame the Palestinians for the lack of a peace agreement, as “the two sides were not ready” for a deal at that point in time.
“Propaganda is not education”
Interestingly enough, Clinton had another notable moment of truth when she bluntly stated that “propaganda is not education” and accurately pointed out the biased and one-sided version of events that many young people were receiving both in the classroom as well as on social media platforms like TikTok.
“So much of what we’re seeing, particularly on TikTok, about what’s going on in the Middle East is woefully false, but it’s also incredibly slanted — pro-Hamas, anti-Israel,” she said. “It is not any place where anyone should go to get information about complex matters like what is going on there.”
To be sure, at least concerning the leftist anti-Israel student protesters taking over campuses, Clinton was not wrong to suggest that many of them are less than fully informed about the historical details of the conflict. That said, her broad brushstrokes that painted all young Americans as essentially being historically illiterate were probably going too far.
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Author: Ben Marquis
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