Bill Clinton paid $500,000 for speech in Israel

Jerusalem, June 3 (IANS) Former US president Bill Clinton has been paid $500,000 for a speech to be given at an event in honour of Israeli President Shimon Peres, sources told Xinhua.

Clinton is scheduled to visit Israel June 18 for the fifth annual Presidential Conference, to be attended by international political leaders, thinkers and artists.

Clinton's 45-minute speech on sustainability is to be held by the Peres Academic Center in the city of Rehovot, northern Israel, but will be co-sponsored by the Jewish National Fund (JNF), officials at the JNF and the Peres Academic Center told Xinhua Sunday.

The payment was made to the Clinton Global Initiative, an international affairs outreach venture of Clinton, according to Israel's Hebrew-language Yedioth Ahronot daily.