The answer to that last question is that he has had little discernable impact, at least publicly. Mrs. Clinton, who backs the idea of a two-state solution, has been unwavering in her support of Israel since becoming Senator.
But then, say Mr. Masri’s colleagues, his involvement has never been about public gestures. Whatever lobbying he has done has been of the low-key variety, at his events at the Café Milano and elsewhere.
“A lot of his advocating for Palestinian issues is done in these types of lunches,” said Mr. Dajani. “He has access to people who have influence on decision-making, and that’s a relatively small circle in Washington D.C. And I think he has put it to good use in terms of arguing for a two-state solution.”
Mr. Masri has become one of the party’s top donors thanks to the vast wealth he has accumulated through his Capital Investment Management Corporation, which is based in Washington, where he lives with his wife in a mansion in the northwest quarter. The political donations he has made, to the D.N.C. and other Democratic candidates—including Mrs. Clinton’s leading Democratic rival, Barack Obama, when he ran for the Senate—certainly suggest that his support is a sought-after commodity.
“Mr. Masri has been a longtime supporter of Senator Clinton, her husband and the Democratic Party, and we are grateful for that support,” said Mrs. Clinton’s spokesman, Howard Wolfson.
Certainly, that support has not been conditioned on Mrs. Clinton’s views on the Middle East. In her seven years as a Senator, Mrs. Clinton has shown scant evidence of her once-unusual level of support of the Palestinian cause. (She came out in support of an independent Palestinian state when she was First Lady, long before that became a mainstream position for American politicians.)
Since moving to New York, Mrs. Clinton has backed the building of the controversial wall separating Israel from the West Bank and has called a nuclear-armed Iran an “unacceptable” threat to Israeli safety.
Last July, during the Israeli bombing of Lebanon, Mrs. Clinton told a pro-Israel rally held in midtown that she supported “whatever steps are necessary” to defend Israel in response to what she called the “unwarranted, unprovoked” seizure of three Israeli soldiers by members of Hamas and Hezbollah, “the new totalitarians of the 21st century.”
Last month, she co-sponsored a resolution calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Israeli soldiers held captive by Hamas and Hezbollah. And she excoriated as indoctrination new Palestinian schoolbooks that described Israel’s founding as “a disaster unprecedented in history.”
Mr. Masri, who once hosted Arafat during a visit to Washington, according to a report in The Forward, may at least concur with Mrs. Clinton’s criticism of Hamas, which is currently battling its governing partner, Fatah, in fierce firefights on the streets of Gaza.
