Netanyahu: US easily manipulated

[luke]

Netanyahu: US easily manipulated

A recently-revealed tape has shown Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, discussing ways to undermine the Oslo Accords and calling the United States "easy" to manipulate.

The video was filmed in 2001, apparently without Netanyahu's knowledge, during a meeting with Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. It aired on Friday night on Israel's Channel 10, and several translations have been posted online.

At one point on the tape, Netanyahu threatens a "broad attack" against the Palestinian Authority.

"The main thing, first of all, is to hit them. Not just one blow, but blows that are so painful that the price will be too heavy to be borne," Netanyahu said. "A broad attack on the Palestinian Authority."

The tape was shot during the early stages of the second intifada, when violence between Israelis and Palestinians was escalating. Netanyahu was speaking with settlers who lost family members to Palestinian attacks.

Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister at the time, had recently deployed additional Israeli troops in the West Bank.

Undermining the Oslo Accords

Netanyahu - who did not hold political office when the recording was made - was dismissive of the United States, calling it easily manipulated.

"I know what America is," Netanyahu said. "America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction. They won't get in the way."

Netanyahu also spoke extensively about undermining the Oslo Accords, the agreement signed in 1993 which set a framework for future Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

The Oslo Accords specified that Israel would be allowed to keep "military zones" in the West Bank in any future agreement with the Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu told the settlers he would use that loophole to retain large portions of Palestinian territory.

"I'm going to interpret the accords in such a way that would allow me to put an end to this galloping forward to the '67 borders," he said.

"How do we do it? Nobody said what defined military zones were. Defined military zones are security zones; as far as I'm concerned, the entire Jordan Valley is a defined military zone."

In the recording, Netanyahu described Bill Clinton - the former US president who helped to negotiate the accords - as "radically pro-Palestinian".

‘The world won’t say a thing’– Netanyahu on ongoing Israeli expansion



The Washington Post, and Glenn Kessler, have picked up the story that Netanyahu said that "America is a thing that can be easily moved," back in 2001. Good to have this knowledge inside the Beltway at last.

Below is a transcript of the Second-Intifadah era conversation, supplied by Dena Shunra, a Hebrew<>English translator living and working in the United States. Note that Netanyahu quotes his extremist father counseling him to give up 2 percent of Hebron (during the Wye negotiations) so as to maintain the Jewish settlements there and get people off Israel's back. And note that Netanyahu's defiance about American opinion extends to the whole world. When his interlocutor asks about world opinion re continued conquest/settlement, he says, "The world won’t say a thing. The world will say we’re defending."

Shunra: "I went from 3:15 to about 8:00 - the rest wasn't very interesting.

"Background: Netanyahu is visiting the home of a woman who just lost her husband, and she is being cheered by five other widows. There's a young boy present, and Netanyahu asks (at about 3:00) that they turn off the camera so he can speak to them 'freely'. The camera gets turned on again in mid-conversation."

Transcript follows:

Netanyahu: Are you starting to understand what the slogan “Judea and Samaria are right here”?

What does Arafat want? He wants one big settlement. It’s called “Tel Aviv”.

Woman: Yes, that’s what my daughter in law, who comes from England, that what she says: “Tel Aviv is a settlement too.”

Netanyahu: As far as they’re concerned, I think, our territorial waters are also their?

-?

[inaudible]

Netanyahu: The fact is that they want us in the sea, yes, but over there in the sea [points aside]. The Arabs are currently focusing a war of terror and they think it will break us. The main thing, first of all, is to hit them. Not just one hit, so many painful its that the price will be to heavy to be borne. The price is not too heavy to be borne, now. A broad attack on the Palestinian Authority. To bring them to the point of being afraid that everything is collapsing.

Woman: They’re not afraid, they’re making fun of us. They shoot into our settlement and make fun of us.

Netanyahu: Fear that everything is collapsing. That’s what leads them to… [makes a hand motion]

Woman: wait a moment, but then the world will say “how come you’re conquering again?”

Netanyahu: the world won’t say a thing. The world will say we’re defending.

Woman: Aren’t you afraid of the world, Bibi?

Netanyahu: Especially today, with America. I know what America is. America is something that can easily be moved. Moved to the right correction.

Child: They say they’re for us, but, it’s like…

Netanyahu: They won’t get in our way. They won’t get in our way.

Child: On the other hand, if we do some something, then they…

Netanyahu: So let’s say they say something. So they said it! They said it! 80% of the Americans support us. It’s absurd. We have that kind of support and we say “what will we do with the…” look. That administration was extremely pro-Palestinian. I wasn’t afraid to maneuver there. I was not afraid to clash with Clinton. I was not afraid to clash with the United Nations. I was paying the price anyway, I preferred to receive the value. Value for the price.

Child: But never mind that we gave them things, and we can’t take them back. Because they won’t give them back to us.

Netanyahu (holds his and to stop him from speaking): first of all, first of all Oslo is a system – you’re right. A, I don’t know what can be taken and can’t be taken.

Woman: he has political opinions, believe me.

Netanyahu: He’s right.

Woman: He said such things to Arik Sharonthat I told him: that’s not – that’ not a child’s opinion. The Oslo Accords are a disaster.

Netanyahu: Yes. You know that and I knew that.

Woman: Fine, so I thought that…

Netanyahu: The people [nation] has to know.

Woman: Right. But I thought that the prime minister did know, and that he’d do everything so that, somehow, not to do critical things, like handing over Hebron, that…

Netanyahu: What were the Oslo Accords? The Oslo Accords, which the Knesset signed, I was asked, before the elections: “Will you act according to them?” and I answered: “yes, subject to mutuality and limiting the retreats.” “But how do you intend to limit the retreats?” “I’ll give such interpretation to the Accords that will make it possible for me to stop this galloping to the ’67 [armistice] lines. How did we do it?

Narrator: The Oslo Accords stated at the time that Israel would gradually hand over territories to the Palestinians in three different pulses, unless the territories in question had settlements or military sites. This is where Netanyahu found a loophole.

Netanyahu: No one said what defined military sites. Defined military sites, I said, were security zones. As far as I’m concerned, the Jordan Valley is a defined military site.

Woman: Right [laughs]. The Beit She’an settlements. The Beit She’an Valley.

Netanyahu: How can you tell. How can you tell? But then the question came up of just who would define what Defined Military Sites were. I received a letter – to my and to Arafat, at the same time – which said that Israel, and only Israel, would be the one to define what those are, the location of those military sites and their size. Now, they did not want to give me that letter, so I did not give the Hebron Agreement. I stopped the government meeting, I said: “I’m not signing.” Only when the letter came, in the course of the meeting, to my and to Arafat, only then did I sign the Hebron Agreement. Or rather, ratify it, it had already been signed. Why does this matter? Because at that moment I actually stopped the Oslo Accord.

Woman: And despite that, one of our own peope, excuse me, who knew it was a swindle, and that we were going to commit suicide with the Oslo Accord, gives them – for example – Hebron. I never understood that.

Netanyahu: Indeed, Hebron hurts. It hurts. It’s the thing that hurts. One of the famous rabbis, whom I very much respect, a rabbi of Eretz Yisrael, he said to me: “What would your father say?” I went to my father. Do you know a little about my father’s positiond?

Woman: Yes.

Netanyahu: My father is…

Child: No. [laughs]

Woman: He’ll read in a little while.

Netanyahu: He’s not exactly a lily-white dove, as they say. So my father heard the question and said: “Tell the rabbi that your grandfather, Rabbi Natan Milikowski, was a smart Jew. Tell him it would be better to give two percent than to give a hundred percent. And that’s the choice here. You gave two percent and in that way you stopped the withdrawal. Instead of a hundred percent.” The trick is not to be there and break down. The trick is to be there and pay a minimal price.

Woman: May you say that as prime minister.

Netanyahu: In my estimate that will happen.

[faceless]

conspiracy theorists won't like this news at all - they're convinced that Israel simply tells America what to do!