Politics

The Handshake Is On The Other Foot

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 11, 2000 / 8:19 AM EDT / CBS

Has Rick Lazio bitten – or shaken – the hand that feeds him? Or, to put it another way, has he been criticizing the first lady for behavior he himself gladly exhibited?

Never mind the fact that the behavior in question is a mundane form of diplomacy: shaking hands. In the bitter contest for New York’s open Senate seat, any tempest will do.

Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign-season rival found himself under fire after a photograph of him shaking Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's hand was made public.

Normally, when politicians shake hands with world leaders, it’s part of the job. But due to catty campaign rhetoric, Lazio’s shake with the Palestinian leader looks a little below board.

The photograph was taken by a White House photographer in 1998, when Lazio visited the Mideast with President Clinton and other U.S. officials.

Lazio, the Republican Senate candidate, has in the past criticized his Democratic rival, Mrs. Clinton, for hugging Arafat's wife after she delivered a contentious speech last year.

The photo surfaced just two days after Lazio criticized President Clinton's impromptu handshake with Cuban President Fidel Castro at the United Nations Millennium Summit last week, saying: “We send the wrong message when we embrace, whether it's Mrs. Arafat or Fidel Castro.”

Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., who was with Lazio when he met Arafat as part of an official U.S. delegation, said everyone on the trip shook hands with Arafat, including himself. Lantos is the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress.

"The issue is not Lazio shaking hands with Arafat," Lantos said. "The issue is Lazio attacking Mrs. Clinton earlier with respect to Mrs. Arafat, and his attacking the president on Fidel Castro. It's such sheer and childish hypocrisy."

A local politician put it succinctly:

“Be careful when you start throwing stones,” said state Assemblyman Dov Hikind, D-Brooklyn, an Orthodox Jew who has not yet made an endorsement in the Senate race.

Lazio, who was visiting an Irish fair in Brooklyn late Sunday, criticized the White House for releasing the photo. “It sure sounds like taxpayer money was once again used to further the Clinton campaign,” he said.

He also insisted that his shaking hands with Arafat was “absolutely nothing like what Mrs. Clinton had done. ... It wasn't a kiss, it wasn't a hug, it wasn't a call for a Palestinian state.”

Mrs. Clinton, asked about the propriety of the release, demurred, saying: “You'll have to ask the White House about that. I think from the White House perspective, he attacked the president.”

Mrs. Clinton has been questioned many times about her own embrace of Arafat's wife, Soha, last fall. The two women hugged after Mrs. Arafat accused Israel of using poison gas against Palestinians, but the first lady has defended the embrace as a formality ain to a handshake, and said she would have caused an international incident had she rebuffed Mrs. Arafat that day.

Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, faced a controversy of her own as she and the president prepared to attend a fund-raiser for the World Jewish Congress honoring them and others, including former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, for their work on restitution for Holocaust victims.

The first lady is being honored for her role in arranging a meeting between her husband and World Jewish Congress President Edgar Bronfman. Some critics have questioned whether the award is appropriate, given that Bronfman is an adviser to her campaign and Jews make up a crucial voting bloc in the Senate race.

“It's crass exploitation of the Holocaust for partisan political purposes,” said Beth Gilinsky of the Jewish Human Rights Forum, a small conservative organization. “All she did was she told her husband he should meet with Edgar Bronfman. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's nothing compared to the years of effort put in by other people.”

Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson said the first lady was proud to be recognized.

Lazio's campaign has pointed out that he, too, played a role in restitution efforts, by introducing a bill that extended the life of a presidential commission investigating what happened to assets of Holocaust victims that came into American hands. Lazio was not invited to the dinner.

New York’s Democratic primary, which Mrs. Clinton is expected to win easily, was slated for Tuesday.