Israeli newspapers view the Monica Lewinsky affair as a boon for their Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu. They predict a weakened President Clinton would now not risk trying to pressure Israel over the stalled Middle East peace process.
The independent Haaretz said that whatever the outcome of the grand jury investigation into Mr Clinton's sexual dalliances, the US leader "will be a lame President who in the best scenario will use his remaining two years in office to recover".
"Monica will go down in history as the woman who screwed a US President and saved an Israeli Prime Minister," it said.
Mr Netanyahu has for months resisted appeals by the Clinton administration that his government cede another 13 per cent of the West Bank to Palestinian control to revive peace negotiations stalled for nearly 18 months.
US officials issued numerous veiled threats in recent months that they would go public with their plan and openly blame Mr Netanyahu for the deadlock if his government continued to resist the troop withdrawals required under signed peace accords.
But they never put the threats into action, reportedly under the combined pressure of the pro-Israeli lobby in the United States and Mr Clinton's legal woes linked to the Lewinsky scandal.
The newspaper, Maariv, expressed concern in its editorial that Mr Clinton "has simply stopped functioning" as "defender of the free world" at a time of growing crisis both in the Middle East and the former Soviet Union.
"It would be preferable were the international hit story about sex at the White House be taken off the screen as quickly as possible so that the US President can deal with the little issues like the preservation of world peace."
The Philippine President, Mr Joseph Estrada, long known for his own amorous flings, agreed yesterday with Mr Clinton that leaders are entitled to their privacy. "Definitely. We are only human beings . . . Even if you are a President you are also a person," he said.