According to Jon Swaine writing in "The Daily Telegraph", Hagel has been accused of having "views verged on anti-Semitic" due to his stating in a 2006 interview with Aaron David Miller that "[the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people Capitol Hill", and "I'm not an Israeli senator. I'm a United States senator." Hagel later clarified these remarks saying he was referring to the Israel lobby. Hagel also has been criticized by the American Jewish Committee for an incident in 1999 where he was the only senator not to sign an open letter to Russian President Boris Yeltsin threatening to cut aid to Russia if it did not take action against rising anti-Semitism in the country. However, Hagel's refusal to sign the letter was consistent with his policy of never signing letters to foreign heads of state. Hagel, instead, wrote to Bill Clinton on this issue, saying "Anti-Semitism or any form of religious persecution should never be tolerated."