Clinton attacks Trump’s qualifications in AIPAC speech

HILLARY Clinton has launched her most pointed attack yet on the Republican frontrunner, calling the prospect of a Trump presidency “unthinkable”.

HILLARY Clinton previewed an early line of Democratic attack against Donald Trump on Monday, casting the Republican frontrunner as unqualified to handle heated international conflicts as commander in chief in her speech before a prominent pro-Israel advocacy organisation.

Nearly all the presidential candidates are scheduled to address the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which draws top Jewish leaders from around the world. The event is a traditional stop for US politicians eager to demonstrate their foreign policy credentials.

Clinton rival Bernie Sanders, who is trying to become the first Jewish candidate to win a major party’s presidential nomination, is skipping the AIPAC meeting for campaign appearances in Utah and Arizona, which have primary contests on Tuesday.

Clinton, a former secretary of state, used her address not only to highlight her decades of work in the Middle East but also to raise questions about Trump’s credentials and trustworthiness.

“We need steady hands,” she told thousands of activists. “Not a president who says he’s neutral on Monday, pro-Israel on Tuesday and who-knows-what on Wednesday because everything’s negotiable.”

Israel’s security, she proclaimed to loud applause, “is non-negotiable.” Trump sparked criticism from Republican allies of the Jewish state last month when he vowed to be a “sort of a neutral guy” on Israel. While the US is officially neutral in the Middle East conflict, his statement was a marked rhetorical departure for typically strongly pro-Israel US presidential candidates.

Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, called a Trump presidency ‘unthinkable’.

Trump plans to detail his plans for a peace deal in remarks before the organisation on Monday night.

The billionaire businessman is using a rare day in Washington to try to woo a Republican establishment that’s been reluctant, and in some cases, determined, to stop his rise to the party’s nomination. He’s meeting with nearly two dozen top party officials, consultants and members of Congress.

There were protests planned at many of his stops, with a group of rabbis planning to boycott his speech before AIPAC.

Trump has a mixed record with pro-Israel Republicans. He’s refused to make the perennial Republican campaign promise of promising to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, drawing boos last year from the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Socially liberal Jews object to his controversial remarks about Mexican immigrants, women and Muslims, with some drawing analogies to the European persecution of Jews that eventually led to the Holocaust.

Clinton drew a similar parallel in her remarks, referencing a famous incident of a ship with Jewish refugees being turned away from the US in 1939.

“We’ve had dark chapters in our history before,” she said.

“America should be better than this, and I believe it’s our responsibility as citizens to say so. If you see bigotry, oppose it.”

Clinton, who received a standing ovation from the group, has a long history in the Middle East, including overseeing as secretary of state the Obama administration’s first attempt to broker Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Her stance against Jewish settlements on land claimed by the Palestinians has been criticised by some in the pro-Israel community, but she has been received warmly by pro-Israel groups in the past.

She renewed promises to provide sophisticated defence technology to Israel and to quickly invite the country’s prime minister to the White House, if elected president. And she offered subtle criticism of the Obama administration, which has had public rifts with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

AIPAC describes itself as nonpartisan and has never endorsed a candidate. But the organisation has played a big role in partisan political debates over issues of interest to Israel. Most recently, it worked hard to try to scuttle the Iran nuclear agreement.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.