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Hillary Clinton: "Israel Did What It Had to Do to Respond to the Rockets"
(Atlantic) Jeffrey Goldberg interviews Hillary Clinton - Discussing the Gaza war, Hillary Clinton offered a vociferous defense of Israel. This is noteworthy because, as secretary of state, she spent a lot of time yelling at Netanyahu on the administration's behalf over Israel's West Bank settlement policy. Now, she is leaving no daylight at all between the Israelis and herself. "I think Israel did what it had to do to respond to the rockets.... Israel has a right to defend itself." "There's no doubt in my mind that Hamas initiated this conflict....So the ultimate responsibility has to rest on Hamas and the decisions it made." "It is striking...that you have more than 170,000 people dead in Syria...more than 1,000 people have been killed in Ukraine on both sides...and yet we do see this enormous international reaction against Israel....This reaction is uncalled for and unfair." Clinton also blamed Hamas for "stage-managing" the conflict. "What you see is largely what Hamas invites and permits Western journalists to report on from Gaza. It's the old PR problem that Israel has....The PR battle is one that is historically tilted against Israel."