July19 2010
There is one video Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, must be praying never gets posted on YouTube with English subtitles. To date, the 10-minute segment has been broadcast only in Hebrew on Israel’s Channel 10. (Since the time of writing, the video is now available with English Transcripts on Youtube – watch at end of article -MV Media Editor)
Its contents, however, threaten to gravely embarrass not only Mr Netanyahu but also the US administration of Barack Obama.
The film was shot, apparently without Mr Netanyahu’s knowledge, nine years ago, when the government of Ariel Sharon had started reinvading the main cities of the West Bank to crush Palestinian resistance in the early stages of the second intifada.
At the time Mr Netanyahu had taken a short break from politics but was soon to join Mr Sharon’s government as finance minister.
On a visit to a home in the settlement of Ofra in the West Bank to pay condolences to the family of a man killed in a Palestinian shooting attack, he makes a series of unguarded admissions about his first period as prime minister, from 1996 to 1999.
Seated on a sofa in the house, he tells the family that he deceived the US president of the time, Bill Clinton, into believing he was helping implement the Oslo accords, the US-sponsored peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, by making minor withdrawals from the West Bank while actually entrenching the occupation. He boasts that he thereby destroyed the Oslo process.
He dismisses the US as “easily moved to the right direction” and calls high levels of popular American support for Israel “absurd”.
He also suggests that, far from being defensive, Israel’s harsh military repression of the Palestinian uprising was designed chiefly to crush the Palestinian Authority led by Yasser Arafat so that it could be made more pliable for Israeli diktats.
All of these claims have obvious parallels with the current situation, when Mr Netanyahu is again Israel’s prime minister facing off with a White House trying to draw him into a peace process that runs counter to his political agenda.
As before, he has ostensibly made public concessions to the US administration – chiefly by agreeing in principle to the creation of a Palestinian state, consenting to indirect talks with the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah, and implementing a temporary freeze on settlement building.
But he has also enlisted the powerful pro-Israel lobby to exert pressure on the White House, which appears to have relented on its most important stipulations.
The contemptuous view of Washington Mr Netanyahu demonstrates in the film will confirm the suspicions of many observers – including Palestinian leaders – that his current professions of good faith should not be taken seriously.
Critics have already pointed out that his gestures have been extracted only after heavy arm-twisting from the US administration.
More significantly, he has so far avoided engaging meaningfully in the limited talks the White House is promoting with the Palestinians while the pace of settlement building in the West Bank has been barely affected by the 10-month freeze, due to end in September.
In the meantime, planning officials have repeatedly approved large new housing projects in East Jerusalem and the West Bank that have undercut the negotiations and will make the establishment of a Palestinian state – viable or otherwise – far less likely.
Writing in the liberal Haaretz newspaper, the columnist Gideon Levy called the video “outrageous”. He said it proved that Mr Netanyahu was a “con artist … who thinks that Washington is in his pocket and that he can pull the wool over its eyes”. He added that the prime minister had not reformed in the intervening period: “Such a crooked way of thinking does not change over the years.”
In the film, Mr Netanyahu says Israel must inflict “blows [on the Palestinians] that are so painful the price will be too heavy to be borne … A broad attack on the Palestinian Authority, to bring them to the point of being afraid that everything is collapsing”.
When asked if the US will object, he responds: “America is something that can be easily moved. Moved to the right direction … They won’t get in our way … Eighty per cent of the Americans support us. It’s absurd.”
He then recounts how he dealt with President Clinton, whom he refers to as “extremely pro-Palestinian”. “I wasn’t afraid to manoeuvre there. I was not afraid to clash with Clinton.”
His approach to White House demands to withdraw from Palestinian territory under the Oslo accords, he says, drew on his grandfather’s philosophy: “It would be better to give two per cent than to give 100 per cent.”
He therefore signed the 1997 agreement to pull the Israeli army back from much of Hebron, the last Palestinian city under direct occupation, as a way to avoid conceding more territory.
“The trick,” he says, “is not to be there [in the occupied territories] and be broken; the trick is to be there and pay a minimal price.”
The “trick” that stopped further withdrawals, Mr Netanyahu adds, was to redefine what parts of the occupied territories counted as a “specified military site” under the Oslo accords. He wanted the White House to approve in writing the classification of the Jordan Valley, a large area of the West Bank, as such a military site.
“Now, they did not want to give me that letter, so I did not give [them] the Hebron Agreement. I stopped the government meeting, I said: ‘I’m not signing.’ Only when the letter came … did I sign the Hebron Agreement. Why does this matter? Because at that moment I actually stopped the Oslo accord.”
Last week, after meeting Mr Obama in Washington, the Israeli prime minister gave an interview to Fox News in which he appeared to be in no hurry to make concessions: “Can we have a negotiated peace? Yes. Can it be implemented by 2012? I think it’s going to take longer than that,” he said.
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http://mondoweiss.net/2010/07/the-world-wont-say-a-thing-netanyahu-on-ongoing-israeli-expansion.html
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:
3:15
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אתם מתחילים עכשיו להבין את פרוש הסיסמה “יש”ע זה כאן”? מה ערפאת רוצה? הוא רוצה התנחלות אחת גדולה. קוראים לה “תל אביב”. |
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”. |
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אשה: כן. זה מה שכלתי, שהיא באה מאנגליה, אומרת. “גם תל-אביב היא התנחלות.” |
Woman: Yes, that’s what my daughter in law, who comes from England, that what she says: “Tel Aviv is a settlement too.” |
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ביב: מבחינתם, לדעתי, גם המים הטריטוריאליים שלהו הם שלהם. |
Netanyahu: As far as they’re concerned, I think, our territorial waters are also their? |
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-? |
[inaudible] |
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זה שהם רוצים אותנו בים, כן. אבל בים (מצביע הצידה) הערבים ממקדים כרגע מלחמת טרור והם חושבים שזה ישבור אותנו. הדבר העיקרי, קודם כל, הוא לתת להם מכות. לא רק מכה, מכות כל כך מכאיבות שהמחיר יהיה כבד מנשוא. כרגע המחיר לא כבד מנשוא. התקפה רבת היקף על הרשות הפלסטינית. להביא אותם לפחד שהכול מתמוטט. |
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. |
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אישה: הם לא פוחדים, הם צוחקים עלינו. הם יורים עלינו לתוך היישוב בצחוק… |
Woman: They’re not afraid, they’re making fun of us. They shoot into our settlement and make fun of us. |
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ביבי: פחד שהכול מתמוטט. זה מה שמביא אותם ל… (מסובב אצבעות) |
Netanyahu: Fear that everything is collapsing. That’s what leads them to… [makes a hand motion] |
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אישה: רגע, אבל אז עוד פעם העולם יגיד מה אתם כובשים? |
Woman: wait a moment, but then the world will say “how come you’re conquering again?” |
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ביבי: העולם, העולם לא יגיד כלום. העולם יגיד שאנחנו מגנים. |
Netanyahu: the world won’t say a thing. The world will say we’re defending. |
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אישה: אתה לא מפחד מהעולם, ביבי? |
Woman: Aren’t you afraid of the world, Bibi? |
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ביבי: במיוחד היום, עם אמריקה. אני יודע מה זה אמריקה. אמריקה זה דבר שאפשר להזיז אותו בקלות. להזיז לכיוון הנכון. |
Netanyahu: Especially today, with America. I know what America is. America is something that can easily be moved. Moved to the right correction. |
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ילד: הם אומרים שהם בעדנו, אבל, כאילו… |
Child: They say they’re for us, but, it’s like… |
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ביבי: הם לא יפריעו לנו. לא יפריעו לנו. |
Netanyahu: They won’t get in our way. They won’t get in our way. |
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ילד: מצד שני, אם אנחנו עושים איזה משהו, אז הם… |
Child: On the other hand, if we do some something, then they… |
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ביבי: אז נניח שהם אומרים משהו. אז אומרים… אמרו! 80 אחוז מהאמריקאים תומכים בנו. זה אבסורד. יש לנו שם תמיכה כזו ואנחנו אומרים “מה נעשה עם הזה…” תראי, הממשל ההוא היה פרו-פלסטיני בצורה קיצונית. לא פחדתי לתמרן שם. לא פחדתי להתעמת עם קלינטון. לא פחדתי להתעמת עם האו”ם. בלאו הכי אני משלם את המחיר, אז עדיף לי כבר לקבל את תמורה. תמורה לאגרה. |
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. |
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ילד: אוסלו… מילא הבאנו להם דברים, ואנחנו לא יכולים לקחת להם אותם בחזרה, כי הם לא ייתנו להם אותם בחזרה. |
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. |
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ביבי: (עוצר אותו): קודם כל, קודם כל אוסלו זו מערכת – אתה צודק. א’, אני לא יודע מה אפשר לקחת או אי אפשר. |
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. |
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אשה: יש לו דעות פולייטיות, תאמין לי. |
Woman: he has political opinions, believe me. |
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ביבי: הוא צודק. |
Netanyahu: He’s right. |
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אשה: הוא אמר לאריק שרון דברים שאני אמרתי לו: זה לא – זה לא דעה של ילד. הסכמי אוסלו זה אסון. |
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. |
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ביבי: כן, את זה את יודעת ואני ידעתי. |
Netanyahu: Yes. You know that and I knew that. |
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אשה: יפה, אז חשבתי ש… |
Woman: Fine, so I thought that… |
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ביבי: צריך שהעם יידע. |
Netanyahu: The people [nation] has to know. |
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אשה: נכון. אבל חשבתי שראש הממשלה כן ידע, והוא יעשה הכל כדי, איכשהו, לא לעשות דברים קריטיים, כמו מסירת חברון ש… |
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… |
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ביבי: מה היו הסכמי אוסלו? הסכמי אוסלו שהכנסת חתמה עליהם – שאלות אותי, לךפני הבחירות: אתה תקיים?” אמרתי: “כן, כפוף להדדיות וצמצום הנסיגות.” “אבל איך אתה מצמצם את הנסיגות?” אני אתן פירוש להסכם שיאפשר לי להפסיק את הדהירה הזאת לקווי 67′. איך עשינו את זה? |
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? |
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קריין: הסכם אוסלו קבע בשעתו כי ישראל תמסור בהדרגה שטחים לפלסטינים בשלוש פעימות שונות, אלא אם בשטחים האמורים יימצאו התנחלויות, או אתרים צבאיים. כאן מזה ביבי פרצה. |
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. |
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אף אחד לא אמר מה זה אתרים צבאיים מוגדרים. אתרים צבאיים מוגדרים, אני אמרתי, אלה אזורי ביטחון. בקעת הירדן, מבחינתי, זה אזור צבאי מוגדר. |
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. |
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אישה: נכון. (צוחקת) יישובי בית שאן. עמק בית שאן. |
Woman: Right [laughs]. The Beit She’an settlements. The Beit She’an Valley. |
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ביבי: לך תגיד. לך תגיד. אבל אז היתה שאלה, מי יגדיר מה זה “אתרים צבאיים מוגדרים”. קיבלתי מכתב מכריסטופר. אלי ואל ערפאת באותה שעה, שאומר שישראל, וישראל בלבד, היא זו שתגדיר מה הם, את מיקום האתרים הצבאיים האלה, ואת גודלם. עכשיו, הם לא רצו לתת את המכתב הזה, אז לא נתתי את הסכם חברון. הפסקתי את ישיבת הממשלה, אמרתי: “אני לא חותם”. רק כשהגיע המכתב, תוך כדי הישיבה אלי ואל ערפאת, חתמתי על הסכם חברון, או אשררתי אותו. הוא כבר היה חתום קודם. למה זה חשוב? כי מאותו הרגע עצרתי בעצם את הסכם אוסלו. |
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. |
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אשה: ולמרות זאת, אדם משלנו, סליחה, שידע שזו תרמית, ושאנחנו הולכים להתאבד עם הסכם אוסלו, נותן להם לדוגמה את חברון. את זה אף פעם לא הבנתי. |
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. |
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ביבי: באמת חברון זה כואב. זה כואב. זה הדבר שכואב. אחד מהרבנים המפורסמים, שאני מאוד מכבד אותו, רב של ארץ ישראל, אמר לי: מה היה אבא שלך אומר?” הלכתי לאבא שלי. אתם יודעים קצת על העמדות של אבא שלי? |
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? |
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אישה: כן |
Woman: Yes. |
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אבי הוא… |
Netanyahu: My father is… |
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ילד: לא (צוחק) |
Child: No. [laughs] |
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אישה: הוא יקרא עוד מעט. |
Woman: He’ll read in a little while. |
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ביבי: הוא לא בדיוק יונה צחורה, כמו שאומרים. אז אבי שמע את השאלה ואמר: “תגיד לרב שהסבא שלך, הרב נתן מיליקובסקי, היה יהודי חכם. תגיד לו שעדיף לתת שני אחוז מאשר לתת מאה אחוז.” וזו הברירה שעומדת כאן על הפרק. אתה נתת שני אחוז ובזה עצרת את הנסיגה הזאת. במקום מאה אחוזים.” החוכמה היא לא להיות שם ולהישבר. החוכמה היא להיות שם ולשלם מחיר מזערי. |
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. |
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אישה: אמן כראש ממשלה. |
Woman: May you say that as prime minister. |
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ביבי: אני מעריך שכן. אני מעריך שזה יקרה. |
Netanyahu: In my estimate that will happen. |
