I can't see how Clinton could pull out of the race, now that New York Democrats have bet the farm on her candidacy. Some dismiss her problems as the expected travails of a first-time candidate. But the party poobahs, many of whom saw her as the smarter Clinton, expected more. She first supported the national aspirations of the Palestinians for statehood, then advocated that Jerusalem be unified under Israeli sovereignty. Both her positions are a departure from official U.S. policy, which is that these issues should be left for the parties to negotiate.
Jewish voters are a key constituency in New York.
Mideast foreign policy has always been an issue in New York politics, where 12 percent of the electorate is Jewish. Scoop Jackson, seeking the 1972 and 1976 Democratic presidential nomination, campaigned in the Empire State with brochures featuring pictures of him next to former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. Both Gary Hart, in 1984, and Al Gore, in 1988, emphasized strong support of Israel during the New York primary. In his successful 1976 Senate race, Daniel Patrick Moynihan stressed his opposition to a U.N. resolution that equated Zionism with racism while he was U.S. ambassador to the organization. The use of the derogatory Yiddish term offended Jews and eroded D'Amato's strength in the Jewish community.