Will Netanyahu start WW3?
 

NAZARETH // The contents of a secretly recorded video threaten to gravely embarrass not only Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister 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."


Could someone who speaks Hebrew confirm the above transcript?

I could help you out with that... but I'm not getting into a bun fight over a nine year old video.

OK, but did they translate what he said or is it fanciful wishful thinking!

Oh, and I suppose nine years later he has changed his mind, if that was true?

I respectfully refer you to my first answer.

Shalom!

I've had independent (sort of) confirmation that what the transcript implies is what he said.

So it's accurate, then.

It was independently acknowledged that the gist of it was that Netanyahu thinks he can do as he pleases and that he can manipulate the Americans at will.

This is surely not "news", as much as a solid confirmation of common knowledge?

That's true, but I'd never really seen a video of him being so forthright, albeit to his family/friends!! I have to thank RT TV for outing this.

I don't believe myself he would or could, Israel is in an area surrounded by Nations that hate the fact it is.

Therefore it must be really difficult for Israel to keep a balance and it has to be able to ensure its security.
I also believe the USA and the UK have a duty to ensure Israel is supported in those efforts as to its security too.

I doubt anyone wants a 3rd World war really but in relation to some of the truly awful things that has been said as to Israel,especially from Iran, strong tensions are likely to remain for way into the future still.

exactly why the state should never have been set up there in the first place
also do you think over 75 Israeli nuclear weapons is enough?

The point is it is there and there is a duty to protect it and for me Israel has every right to take all measures it can to ensure its own survival and security.

As to what is enough, who knows but Israel needs to be able to appear really strong in the midst of so many hostile Nations, in my opinion anyway.

I happens to be the only nuclear weapons equipped state in the Middle East, isn't that deterrent enough? Perhaps if it stopped oppressing and stealing land from it's weaker neighbours that might help?

interesting how you choose to ignore the crimes of Israel , including their disgusting treatment of the Palestinians, the endless illegal land theft and the danger them having so many weapons has to the middle east and the wider world....you also ignore my first point about it being insane setting up the state there in the first place, like no one saw it would turn out to be a disaster?

The only reason Israel gets away with what it does is because the USA likes to have a solid foothold, geographically, in the Middle East and Caucasus region and it's not going to sacrifice that relationship lightly. Netanyahu is correct in that respect, he can more or less do what he wants and the USA won't bat an eyelid because the USA's too invested in isolating Iran. That's how I see it anyway.

Why?

I'm not saying you can't believe what you believe, but you can't really make a grand statement like that as fact without even offering any sort of reasoning...

I get that there's a sense of duty in that Israel is the odd one out in the Middle East and that state was created for all the Jews who had been wronged in World War II and that they deserved a home land. Of course, the USA didn't offer any of its own home territory, nor did the UK, they strategically picked the Middle East. So the sense of duty I expect is that "we created this mess, we should clean it up" - but Israel itself has never really been the main interest in the region, from what I can gather.

I think Mr Netanyahu is starting to worry, the panic felt in pro-Israeli circles is understandable. What Israeli officials describe as the de-legitimization of Israel is reaching a point where it is about to reach a critical mass. It is what Palestinian Gaza-based BDS (Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions) activist Dr Haidar Eid referred to in a recent interview as Palestine's "South Africa moment".

In an article in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz published on December 12, Barak Ravid introduced his piece with a dramatic but truthful statement: "Western activists and diplomats are gunning for Israel's settlements in the Palestinian territories, and if peace talks fail, the rain of boycotts and sanctions could turn into a flood." Entitled "Swell of boycotts driving Israel into international isolation," Ravid's article establishes why the boycott movement is growing in a way unprecedented in the history of Israel.

The BDS debate is at such an advanced stage and has indeed surpassed expectations. there was a flood of reports of Western governments, companies and academic institutions either joining the boycott or deliberating the possibility of doing so. The Romanian government, for example, is refusing to allow its laborers to work in illegal Jewish settlements. A few years ago, reports like these were simply unheard of.

What has changed? In some respects, nothing, and that is the crux of the argument. The Israeli occupation is more entrenched than ever; the illegal settlements are increasing and expanding; and the so-called peace process remains a charade maintained mostly for political self-serving reasons - a cover for the colonial policies of Israel, and a condition for continued US-led Western financial and political backing of the Palestinian Authority - and so on.

But other currents are shifting. BDS activists have found a common strategy and are formulating a unifying narrative that is finally liberating the Palestinian discourse from the ills of factionalism, empty slogans and limiting ideology. The new platform is both decisive in its morality and objectives, yet flexible in its ability to encompass limitless groups, religions and nationalities.

Indeed, there is no room for racism or hate-speech in the BDS platforms. What is equally as important is that there is also no space for gatekeepers who are too sensitive about Israel's racially-motivated sensibilities, or those willing to manipulate history to prevent a pro-active strategy in being advanced.

The ship has sailed for all of this, and the boycott is vastly becoming the new and permanent address of international solidarity with the collective resistance and struggle of the Palestinian people.

So of course Mr Netanyahu seeks to move Israel onto a war footing or start a major War with Iran, as the alternative ie the current status quo is not to Israel's advantage as the clock is ticking and Israel in its present racist apartheid form is sinking fast....!!!!

The thread and question is not about the crimes or whatever else as to Israel, it asks will it's leadership start world war 3.

I think not, there have also been crimes against Israel too, for me Israel exists in the middle east,that was what came about and is a fact.
It has its right to be a Nation and be there, it is surrounded by Nations that hate it so it has to be able to face and deal with anything that threatens its existence and security.
However even with its Nuclear weapons, I myself don't believe that Israel would escalate world tensions to the point of risking a major global war.

I believe the USA and the UK should also support Israel in the main because both have close ties to Israel and likewise vice versa.

I don't intentionally ignore anything by the way, however by my answering the question that 'no', I don't believe Israel's leadership would start world war 3,I went on to say why I think that way, not particularly condemning any Nation in the process or Israel itself for actions against other Nations and peoples,just simply pointing out Israel is in a difficult area.