Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

 
Hillary Clinton Says US Failing to Explain Policies to Muslims

 

WASHINGTON, Jan. 31, 2013 (Xinhua) --

Hillary Clinton Says US Failing to Explain Policies to Muslims

The outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday that America has not been successful in explaining its policies to the Muslim world.

When questioned on why favoritism toward America in recent years has even been lower than the Bush administration, Clinton responded: "I take responsibility, along with our entire government and our Congress and perhaps our private sector."

Clinton made the remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington in her final address as secretary of state. She is expected to step down on Friday and be succeeded by Democratic Senator John Kerry.

Clinton said one of the reasons is the United States has "not done a very good job in recent years reaching out in a public media way or in a culturally effective way to explain ourselves."

She said she had encountered many depictions on U.S. policies by media in the Arab and Muslim world, which she believed are " absolutely untrue."

"Our response has been -- nobody will either believe it or we can't possibly contest it," Clinton said.

To change the dynamics, Clinton called for active engagement with the media in the region, including al-Jazeera, the popular pan-Arab satellite channel, who she viewed as "relentlessly negative" about America.

"You can't be in the arena and expect there to be a change if you're not willing to get off the bench," she said. "And from my perspective, that's our fault."

Editor: Lu Hui

A Reply to Hillary Clinton:

US Support for Apartheid Israel, Not Arab Media, Behind Attitudes of Muslims

By Hassan El-Najjar

February 2, 2013

To the last minute, Hillary Clinton is not telling the truth.

In her farewell speech before the Zionist forum, "Council on Foreign Relations," Hillary Clinton admitted that the US has failed to explain US foreign policy to Muslims. Her main suggestion to her successor is using Aljazeera tv for that purpose, to change the hearts and minds of Muslims towards the US.

The main problem for the US in the region and around the world is its continuous and unconditional support for the Zionist, racist, Apartheid state of Israel.

How can people in the region be friendly with the US while it supports the Israeli aggression against most of the Middle Eastern nations?

How can Muslims understand the US support for the Israeli occupation, subjugation, and continuous dispossession of the Palestinian people and the theft of their land?

How can Muslims understand the US support for the Israeli occupation and control of East Jerusalem, particularly the subjection of the Third Holiest Muslim Sanctuary, Al-Aqsa Mosque to the Israeli rule?

Most importantly, how can Muslims understand the US foreign policy, when there's no such a policy?

When it comes to the Middle East and the Muslim World, there is no American foreign police. Rather, there is an Israeli policy observed by US officials.

Since its inception, the Zionist, Apartheid, Israeli state launched wars on the Palestinian people, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, in addition to air strikes on Iraq, Sudan, and Tunisia. Now, it's relentlessly trying to drag the US into war on Iran.

Israel-firsters and loyalists (Dennis Ross, Bob Kimmit, and Larry Eagleburger) dragged the US to fight Iraq over Kuwait and keep US troops in the region, triggering the September 11 attacks, which were used by another set of Israel-firsters and loyalists (Wolfowitz, Pearle, and Feith) to occupy Iraq and launch a global war on Muslim states, groups, and individuals.

The US problem in the Middle East and around the world is its support for the Israeli aggressors who would like to see the US in continuous wars against the Muslim world, to subjugate it for them. So, when America collapses as a result of continuous wars, they emerge as the regional or global superpower (their dream).

The solution is here at home, for America-firsters, if any, to draw a line on the sand, that the US become independent from Israel, and that the US foreign policy serve the US only, not Israel.

The grilling of Chuck Hagel by the stooges of Israel in the US Congress yesterday and his retreat from all of his criticism of the Zionist state has demonstrated once more that US officials have to pledge their loyalty to Israel, otherwise they won't get the job.

In fact, chuck Hagel showed that he was not actually interviewing for the job of the US Secretary of Defense. Rather, he was interviewing for the job of an assistant to the Israeli occupation forces minister (Ehud Barak and his successor), and he got it.

Congratulations!

Hagel will be surrounded by friends of Israel everywhere, in the Pentagon, the White House, and in the Congress, of course.

The Vice President, Joseph Biden, has a famous sentence describing himself: "You don't have to be Jewish to be a Zionist." It applies to the many who hold the highest positions in government.

Hillary's successor, John Kerry, is a friend of Israel, as his family of origin and his ancestors have been Jewish. This means that we'll see even more support for Israel in the State Department.

***

If all these friends of Israel in Congress and the administration want really to do something to improve the US foreign relations around the world, particularly in the Muslim World, they have to start with forcing their Israeli friends to withdraw from the West Bank, end the siege of Gaza, and allow the Palestinian people to establish their state.

There should be no more US wars for Israel, no war on Iran in particular!

Am I holding my breath that this may happen?

No, but I couldn't let this false statement of Hillary Clinton pass without a reply.

Again:

It's not Aljazeera tv and other Arabic media that will change the hearts and minds of Muslims towards the U.S.

It's the change of the US unconditional support for the Israeli aggressors and their Apartheid Zionist state that will do that!