ABSTRACT
American Jewish critics of the Clinton administration's active encouragement of the agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization charged that Washington underestimated the depth of Arab and Islamic hostility to the Jewish state and the continuing threats to Israel's security. Supporters of the president's high-profile role pointed out that it was helpful to both Arafat and Rabin—who faced considerable opposition back home—to be able to demonstrate to their own constituencies that the president of the United States of America was openly supportive of their historic effort at reconciliation. Consequently when the Labor government, led by Rabin, shattered all these basic assumptions, American Jews were confronted with a dramatic change of ideological vision and approach to the peace process. The right-wing nationalist Likud government of Yitzhak Shamir was replaced by the left-of-center Labor coalition led by Yitzhak Rabin.
