The photo of a beaming Rick Lazio shaking hands with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat couldn’t have turned up at a better time – for his opponent, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Over the past two months, Lazio has watched his support among Jewish voters slip away as Clinton has slowly rebuilt relations with the crucial, traditionally Democratic voting block.
A Post poll on Sunday found the two candidates in a statistical dead heat, with Clinton leading, 47 percent to 45 percent. Among Jewish voters, Clinton’s support grew to 70.3 percent, up from 61 percent a month ago.
The photo of Lazio greeting Arafat can’t possibly help him. After all, it took Clinton months to recoup after she was pictured kissing Arafat’s wife, Suha, on the cheek during a trip to Gaza last year.
“This is the shocker of the campaign so far,” said Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn), who hasn’t endorsed a candidate yet. “This picture is way too warm, and it bothers me – and it bothers people all over the place.”
“Some of Rick Lazio’s strongest support has come from communities like my community,” Hikind said of the conservative Orthodox Jewish voters in Borough Park.
“This definitely makes people think twice.”
Political consultant Joseph Mercurio, who advises Republicans and Democrats, insisted that the damage to Lazio’s campaign is being overstated.
“When you are a Democratic candidate and you are already at 70 percent with Jewish voters, what can this affect?” Mercurio asked.
For months, Lazio has used the Hillary kiss of Arafat’s wife to paint the first lady as anti-Israel.
So gleeful Democrats were quick to brand Lazio a hypocrite yesterday, claiming that the attacks would now backfire at the polls.
“You don’t attack Hillary Clinton for a symbolic gesture when you’re guilty of the same symbolic gesture,” said City Comptroller Alan Hevesi. “That’s just incompetence.”