Netanyahu: America is easy to push around


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In 2001, while he believed he was speaking in private, Netanyahu revealed his contempt for the United States (“something that can easily be moved”) and took pride in having halted the peace process (“I actually stopped the Oslo Accord”).

The then-former Israeli prime minister was visiting a Jewish settlement in the West Bank to pay his condolences to the family of a man shot by a Palestinian. Three minutes into the conversation, Netanyahu requested that the video camera be switched off so that he could speak ‘freely’ but in mid-conversation, the camera resumed operation.

Dena Shunra, a Hebrew-English translator living and working in the United States, provided a translation of the conversation which was broadcast on Israel’s Channel 10. The following transcript published by Mondoweiss, runs from 3.15 to about minute 8.

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 Sharon that 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 position?

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.

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2 thoughts on “Netanyahu: America is easy to push around

  1. Renfro

    Not surprised. America ‘is” a ‘thing’ that can be easily moved and the American people are nothing to their government.

    Let us count the ways.
    There are thousands of those ways, from Ackerman inserting 10 million into his
    2010 earmarks for a hospital in Israel during our own health care crisis to countless agencies , state heads and faithful that set up grants to funnel money from Americans to Israel and it ‘s supporters.

    Homeland security releases new funds to non-profits
    July 16, 2010

    WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Department of Homeland Security released $19
    million to secure non-profits, the vast majority Jewish.

    Of 271 institutions named in a list released this week by DHS, 254 are
    Jewish, including synagogues, schools, community centers and offices.

    The funds were released as part of a congressionally mandated program in
    place since 2005 that targets institutions that are vulnerable to attack.

    Security measures funded include “blast proof windows; reinforced doors,
    locks, gates, and fences; video surveillance; and other equipment and
    enhancements” as well as training, according to a release by the Jewish
    Federations of North America, the federations umbrella body that lobbies
    annually for the funding.

    “The Nonprofit Security Grant Program is a proven resource that helps
    supplement the work of local and federal law enforcement to help keep us
    safe,” William Daroff, JFNA’s Washington director, said in a statement.

    Other groups lobbying for the money include two Orthodox umbrella bodies,
    the Orthodox Union and Agudath Israel of America.

    O.U. called the funds “an important tool to help prevent terrorist attacks
    and protect civilians in case of such attack” and Aguda said “threats and
    actual incidents of violence against Jewish targets in the United States and
    around the world point to the particular vulnerability of our community.”

    Sen. Barbara Mikuski (D-Md.), who has shepherded the funding through
    congressional appropriations, said she remained committed to sustaining the
    program.

    “I have fought for these funds in the past, and I will keep fighting to
    protect institutions that are vital to our communities and the physical,
    social, spiritual and educational well-being of all Americans,” she said.

    Click to login and write a letter to the editor or register for a new
    account.

    This article was made possible by the support of readers like you. Donate to
    JTA now.

    N.Y. State Could Funnel $31.1 Million To Yeshivas, While Making Other Cuts
    By Maia Efrem
    Published July 07, 2010, issue of July 16, 2010.

    New York Governor David Paterson is seeking to make New York the latest
    state to channel public funds to yeshiva students through legislation that
    even staunch defenders of religion-state separation acknowledge as
    constitutional.

    A provision inserted in New York State’s austerity budget at Paterson’s
    insistence would provide $31.1 million over two years to students in
    “faith-based” schools of higher education. It’s expected that yeshiva
    students would be the great majority of recipients, even as other student
    aid programs are slashed or eliminated.

    The measure’s prospects took an uncertain turn over the Fourth of July
    weekend, as Paterson vetoed a slew of spending measures sought by state
    legislators, in which the financial aid measure was buried. It remains to be
    seen whether the funding for rabbinical students will emerge in the final
    version after negotiations between the governor and legislature.

    Nevertheless, constitutional experts concede that Paterson has structured
    the proposed aid in a way that probably complies with the constitutional
    requirements for religion and state separation. Indeed, New York appears to
    be following the lead of several other states, including New Jersey,
    Illinois and Maryland, which have pioneered similar methods of channeling
    government funds to yeshivas in a way that appears to pass constitutional
    muster.

    Critics have also raised questions about the timing of Paterson’s action. He
    inserted it in his budget plans last January, just nine days after he
    collected $140,000 at a fundraising dinner held in his honor at Kiryas Joel,
    an upstate village established by the Satmar Hasidic sect. Akiva Klein, who
    is a powerful businessman and a board member of the Uta Mesivta of Kiryas
    Joel, a rabbinical school with 1,300 students, chaired the dinner. Paterson
    was planning to run for re-election at that point, though since announced
    that he will not.

    Glick told the Forward. “This is a fairly expensive new
    initiative in a year when we’re told there are no new initiatives, and have
    cut up to 25% to community colleges. And it’s more than upsetting that the
    governor turned around and gave approval to a program that probably has a
    significant bias built in.”

    Kruger failed to return repeated phone calls seeking comment. A spokesman
    for Silver confirmed that the Assembly speaker supported the measure, but
    the speaker declined to respond to questions about the provision’s rationale
    as other financial aid programs were being cut.

    As of July 7, the legislature was three months past the statutory deadline
    by which it was supposed have passed a budget and was still mired in
    disputes with Paterson on a slew of other, unrelated budget issues.

    Contact Maia Efrem at efrem@forward.com

    Published 01:47 18.07.10
    Latest update 01:47 18.07.10
    U.S. official: More American aid will help Israel make ‘tough’ decisions
    By Natasha Mozgovaya
    An expanded security aid package would allow Israel to reach “tough
    decisions” in peace talks with the Palestinians, U.S. Assistant Secretary of
    State Andrew J. Shapiro said Friday, adding that Washington planned to
    provide Israel with its most extensive military aid package in history.

    Shapiro noted that in 2010, the administration asked Congress to approve
    $2.775 billion in security aid for Israel, the largest such request in U.S.
    history.

    “This administration believes that pursuing peace between Israel and the
    Palestinians, and Israel and its neighbors, can be a mutually reinforcing
    process,” Shapiro said, adding that it was “more essential than ever to make
    progress on all tracks.”

    He was speaking at the Brookings Saban Center for Middle East Policy in
    Washington D.C.

    Shapiro reiterated the U.S.’s commitment to Israel’s security: “Israel’s
    right to exist, and to defend itself, is not questionable. No lasting peace
    will be possible unless that fact is accepted.” He added: “Israel is a vital
    ally and a cornerstone of our regional security commitments.”

    Referring to the security threats that brought the administration to expand
    its aid package, Shapiro said, “Today Israel is facing some of the toughest
    challenges in its history,” adding that the administration was “particularly
    focused on Israel’s security precisely because of the increasingly complex
    and severe threats that it faces in the region.”

    He noted that while the Iranian nuclear program is the gravest of these, it
    is not the only one. “Iran and Syria both pose significant conventional
    challenges,” Shapiro said, as do Hezbollah and Hamas, “whose rockets
    indiscriminately target Israeli population centers, and whose extensive arms
    smuggling operations, many of which originate in Tehran and Damascus, weaken
    regional security and disrupt efforts to establish lasting peace between
    Israel and its neighbors.”

    “Iron Dome,” Shapiro said, “fills a gap in Israel’s multi-tiered defense
    system. Israel has conducted thorough tests of Iron Dome components and
    we’ve conducted an evaluation of our own. We are confident that Iron Dome
    will provide improved defense for the people of Israel”.

    Do Americans have a promised land anywhere? We need to move so we better start looking.

  2. blowback

    Most members of Congress will see nothing wrong with this, or if they do, we will not hear that they do.

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