Charles Laurence

National Post

February 17, 2001

NEW YORK — As the fogs of obfuscation begin to lift from the latest mess of his own peculiar making, former president Bill Clinton is looking like the seasoned snake-oil salesman who has just been sold a pup.

[…] Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister, called Mr. Clinton in the final hours of his administration, while Rabbi Irving Greenfield, head of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, wrote a missive in support of a pardon on official letterhead.

“This is squandering the moral capital that Israel needs, that was deposited by the blood at Auschwitz,” says Mr. Stein. “That capital is needed in Israel’s ongoing struggle for safety, even survival. To use it for [Marc] Rich is appalling.” The Yiddish word for Jewish feelings, he explained, is shondah (shame).

[…]