Former U.S. President Bill Clinton speaking as he attends the memorial service for assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at Mount Herzel in Jerusalem, Israel, Nov. 14, 2005. (Goran Tomasevic-Pool/Getty Images)
(JTA) — The U.S. State Department nixed at least two events involving former President Bill Clinton and Israel, fearing they would upset peace negotiations.
The events were canceled while Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state, Politico reported Tuesday, citing department emails obtained recently by the news website.
In July 2010, Bill Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were to meet in New York. Later that month, Clinton was to speak at an event in Washington marking the 10th anniversary of the Camp David peace talks.
The events would have taken place as the Obama administration was working to bring Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas back to peace talks during a 10-month freeze on settlement construction.
A spokesman for Bill Clinton told Politico that the emails over the events reflected “proper coordination” between the former president’s staff and the State Department.
The emails were released in response to Freedom of Information Act requests made by Politico and the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, which filed a lawsuit in federal court in May 2013 over the emails.
