- Two modern girls
The first comes of age in a time of political upheaval and violence. The second travels to the capital of the only superpower left on earth and pleasures the leader of the free world–but she is not a concubine. “The irony is that I had the first orgasm of the relationship,” she says later.
Riposte?
The only strength Monica drew from her religion was from the story of Hannah Senesh, a Jewish woman born in Hungary who became a martyr during World War II. Monica first learned about her from a Hollywood-style movie and wrote an essay in school about her. They both had strong bonds with their mothers, Monica wrote, though she was not as brave as Hannah. During that trying day when she was shut up, lawyerless, in a hotel room with FBI agents and Kenneth Starr’s deputies, she was sustained by thoughts of Hannah. She also was helped by reading Psalm 91, which a Christian Science counselor had told her about. The counselor was recommended by her mother.
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Hannah Senesh was brilliant and popular at school. From an early age she tutored other students. She wrote poetry, according to biographer Anthony Masters, as the only way she could express her feelings. She hoped to become a writer, teacher, or organizer of a summer camp. At 13 she started to keep a diary. She intended to write about “beautiful and serious things” and not stoop to focusing on boys and trivial matters–she chastised herself in print when she did. But, in addition to her thoughts on War and Peace, she did include descriptions of her ideal boy, of marriage proposals, and of dance parties that lasted until three or four in the morning. She owned a long blue dress.
She attended an elite Protestant school where Jews had to pay three times the regular tuition. If there were no discrimination, she’d have received a scholarship, according to her mother, who complained to the school. Eventually her tuition was lowered to the same price Catholics were charged. In 1937 she was elected president of her school’s literary club; then she was refused the title by other students because she was Jewish.
American Jews discussed whether it was good for Jews or bad for Jews that Lewinsky was Jewish. There was Arab speculation that Mossad or the American-Jewish lobby was behind a conspiracy to keep Clinton preoccupied so he wouldn’t push Binyamin Netanyahu on the peace process. Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri was quoted by Reuters as saying, “It is not a joke–the Zionist lobby is twisting the arm of the president of the greatest country in the world.” Some even alleged that Lewinsky’s actions were part of a plot to influence Clinton’s Iraq policy.
