Bibi and Hillary at a turning

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Congress this past week may be the day remembered through the ascending millennia by beaded, orthodox mystics in Jerusalem. Not because of anything that he did or said; but because, ironically enough, when he returned to Israel he would be free, by Israeli court decree, to pray at Temple Mount, Solomon’s temple, the holiest site in Jerusalem from which the Western mysteries — Jewish, Christian, Muslim — arose to time and history. It has been a goal sought for nearly 2,000 years, since the destruction of Jerusalem by Emperor Titus. To many Israeli Jews, it means that the long journey home is complete; the exile is over.

{mosads}And has there ever been a more natural fit for America’s temple of law and order? A Financial Times headline the next day: “Bibi’s clapometer: PM’s audacity looks different in hindsight.” Another: “Netanyahu plays Churchill in Washington.”

As we last looked to Britain for the archetypal patriarch to bring us to destiny, today we find him in Israel.

Democrats who turned their backs on him will be remembered. It is one thing to turn the back to Netanyahu; quite another to turn on Elie Wiesel, Nobel laureate and “messenger of mankind” having made passage to us via Auschwitz, Buna and Buchenwald, sitting in the front row. This moment marks a turning; not for New York perhaps, no longer for Britain, but for Israel, Texas and the American heartland, rising together to power and identity now in politics and economy.

And like so many things in the historic passage of Jews — like the Six-Day War in June 1967, almost entirely obscured from an outside world more preoccupied with the Vietnam War and the purple haze of the ascending hippie scene in San Francisco — Netanyahu’s visit was obscured by the smoke of Hillary Clinton’s unravelling. Will Bill be wearing his keffiyeh at Hillary’s inauguration, to show their solidarity with all the other people of the world? No, because there won’t be one. The rock and roll fantasy of Bill and Hillary is over. Elvis has left the building.

As Kristina Wong reported in The Hill yesterday, “Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), a member of the House panel investigating Benghazi terror attacks, is comparing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to President Nixon for her use of private email accounts in office.”

Like a string unravelling from Benghazi, each day brings deeper shadows and revelations; the State Department had policy in place since 2005 against use of personal email; Judicial Watch sues for Hillary’s and Chief of Staff Huma Abedin’s Egypt emails. Increasingly, Watergate is suggested.

The difference is that Hillary Clinton is no Nixon, nor is Bill. Nixon was the last man standing of a warrior generation which brought the world to order after catastrophic, global devastation. He was artfully presented in Ron Howard’s masterful movie “Frost/Nixon” with samurai detachment, stopping to play with a little dog on the way to exile.

Nixon was taken down by a generation, because the time for war had passed. Clinton’s unannounced candidate for the presidency in 2016 will not survive for the same reason. Ironically, Clinton was a 27-year-old-staff attorney for the House Judiciary Committee in the Watergate investigations.

The Clintons have lasted so long because they represent a vast generation of war babies come to dominance. Democrats had no place else to turn and only turned to President Obama in panic in a defense against Hillary Clinton in 2008. Now they do: Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) is much prefered by the liberal professional class and so is former Sen. Jim Webb (D) of Virginia among the literary and cultural brahmins. They offer the opportunity to start again, from scratch.

The Clintons have long been a burden; to the Democrats, to America, to the world. As it was for Nixon, the season has passed.

Quigley is a prize-winning writer who has worked more than 35 years as a book and magazine editor, political commentator and reviewer. For 20 years he has been an amateur farmer, raising Tunis sheep and organic vegetables. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and four children. Contact him at quigley1985@gmail.com.