It is not unusual for the State Department not to issue a public schedule on weekends unless the Secretary of State is on foreign travel. Then they sometimes send out a schedule of events on a Saturday or Sunday. So it is not a surprise that her events of yesterday were not posted by DOS. Yesterday was not the first time that she arrived in DC after a whirlwind trip to spend the evening hosting the Kennedy Center Gala Dinner, but, it appears, there was more to her day than that. According to this article from Arutz Sheva, she delivered an address at the Saban Forum yesterday, and not everyone liked it! (This would explain why her page at Daylife has Bibi all over it! - I will not put him here, though.)
MKs Tell Clinton to ‘Mind your Own Business’
By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
First Publish: 12/4/2011, 12:12 PMClinton speaking at Saban ForumIsrael news photo: US State Department
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton switched from foreign to domestic issues to put down Israel Saturday, expressing worries over “anti-democratic” proposals. Knesset Member Uri Ariel suggests that Secretary of State mind her own business, and two Cabinet ministers said the same, in more patronizing language.
Speaking at the Saban Forum in Washington, Clinton alleged that Israel is showing signs of becoming anti-democratic because of a recent bill proposing limits on foreign funding of local NGOs and for allegedly trying to exclude women from public life in Israel.One of the issues she addressed was the practice by some bus lines, used by many hareidi passengers, of segregating men and women on buses which she likened to the Jim Crow practice in the South of relegating black people to the back of the bus, a practice famously challenged, as she noted, by the great Rosa Parks.
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Another issue that drew her concern was the military practice of excusing hareidi men from events where a woman is singing. Hareidi claim the issue is one of modesty, the same issue that prompted orthodox publications in the U.S. to exclude key female players from this photo.
No one should be surprised that any state where women are being shunted to the margins would draw the attention of HRC. She will speak up against it. The (male) Knesset members who objected to her remarks seem unaware that HRC meets with women in every country she visits and always comments on the necessity and wisdom of including women in all aspects and functions of civil society without restrictions or prejudice. It is not considered domestic interference that she makes these remarks. Social, economic, and educational parity for women and girls is her signature issue. She will speak to it whenever and wherever it is denied.
It is somewhat odd that the DOS published no public schedule, since clearly she had one, and has not published the Secretary's remarks since she was not speaking as a private individual, but as Secretary of State. The photo used in the article was issued by the State Department according to the credit. Should the transcript become available, I will post it separately.
EDITED TO ADD:
Ha! I was going to mention Tzipi Livni in the original post. In the Jerusalem Post, she comes down solidly on Hillary's side.
Kadima leader Tzipi Livni defended US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's criticism of the current state of Israeli democracy, saying Sunday that Clinton's concern needs to "awaken those still blind to the ugly wave washing over Israel from inside."
Steinitz says concerns are 'exaggerated,' calls Israel a 'Living, breathing, kicking liberal democracy'
Livni's comments came after several government ministers, on their way to Sunday's cabinet meeting, took Clinton to task for comments attributed to her at a closed session of the Saban Forum in Washington on Saturday attended by, among others, Livni and Intelligence Agencies Minister Dan Meridor.
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