Leadership Quote by Peter King

The move here is classic political triangulation: outsource your moral authority to a Democrat, name-drop a marquee failure, and let the audience fill in the verdict. By invoking Bill Clinton, Peter King tries to borrow credibility from an unlikely witness, signaling that even the “other side” would confirm the prosecution’s case. It’s less an invitation to investigate than a cue for a shared memory: Clinton as exhausted dealmaker, Camp David as the last great “what if,” Arafat as the man who said no.

“Ask” is doing sly work. It pretends openness while narrowing the acceptable answer. The line doesn’t argue policy details of 2000; it argues character. “Did everything they could” is maximalist phrasing that wipes away the messy record (contested offers, asymmetries, domestic constraints, subsequent violence) and replaces it with a clean morality play: generous peacemakers versus a rejectionist villain. “Walked away” is the emotional button, suggesting petulance or bad faith rather than strategic calculation, fear, or political impossibility.

The context matters: Camp David has become a rhetorical shortcut in U.S. discourse, used to explain why peace efforts “failed” without reopening the file. King is not litigating the past so much as shaping the present: if Arafat is the emblem of Palestinian leadership, then skepticism toward negotiations, aid, or concessions becomes the “realistic” posture. The subtext is permission. If even Clinton couldn’t get “them” to accept a deal, why should anyone try again - or feel responsible for what comes after?