Does Netanyahu mock the US? Transcribed video says so.

In a 9-year-old video recently released, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly seen deriding the US as easily moved in the right (Israel’s) direction.

I don’t know Hebrew. I must therefore rely upon the English transcript which accompanies the video, a transcript prepared by the Institute for Middle East Understanding, a pro-Palestinian website.

Transcript:

[Binyamin Netanyahu] Turn off the camera so that we can elaborate on this.

[Narrator]: A few minutes later… the camera is turned on again and Netanyahu begins to speak without quotation marks and without masks.

[Netanyahu] Now we’re beginning to understand the meaning of the slogan “Yesha Zeikan Judea, Samaria and Azza are here”. Yesha is everywhere, what is the difference?

What does Arafat want? He wants one big settlement [implies Palestinians see all of Israel as a settlement].

[Woman] Yes that’s what my daughter-in-law who came from England says [i.e. they, the Palestinians, see Tel Aviv as a settlement also].

[Natanyahu] Tel Aviv is also a settlement. From their [Palestinians] point of view, our territorial waters are also theirs. The fact is that they want us in the sea. Over there… [gestures] in the distant water.

The Arabs now are preparing for a campaign [or war] of terror, and they think that this will break us.

The main thing is, first and foremost, to hit them hard. Not just one hit… but many painful [hits], so that the price will be unbearable. The price is not unbearable, now. A total assault on the Palestinian Authority. To bring them to a state of panic that everything is collapsing … fear that everything will collapse… this is what we’ll bring them to…

[Woman interrupts] But wait a minute, at that point the whole world will say “What are you occupiers”…

[Natanyahu interrupts] The world will say nothing. The world will say that we are defending ourselves.

“I know what America is. America is a thing that can be easily moved, moved in the right direction… Let’s suppose that they [the Americans] will say something [i.e. to us Israelis] … so they say it…” [i.e. so what?]

[Woman] Aren’t you afraid of the world Bibi?

[Natanyahu] No. Especially now, with America, I know what America is. America is a thing that can be easily moved, moved in the right direction. They [the Americans] will not bother us. Let’s suppose that they [the Americans] will say something [i.e. to us Israelis]… so they say it… [so what?] Eighty per cent of the Americans support us. It’s absurd! We have such [great] support there! And we say… what shall we do with this [support]?

Look, the other administration [that of Bill Clinton] was pro-Palestinian in an extreme way. I was not afraid to manoeuvre there. I did not fear confrontation with Clinton. I was not afraid to clash with the UN. As it is, I am paying the price in the international arena… So I might as well receive something of equal value in exchange.

[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.

[Natanyahu, gestures to let child speak] First of all, Oslo is a system [or package of things]. You’re right… I do not know what can and cannot be taken back [from the Palestinians]

[Woman] He [the child] has political opinions, believe me.

[Natanyahu] He’s right.

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

[Natanyahu] Yes, I know that and you know that… but the people need 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…

“I interpret the [Oslo] accords in such a way that will enable me to stop this rush towards the 1967 borders.”

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 reciprocity and limiting the withdrawals.” But how do you limit the withdrawals? I interpret the accords in such a way that will enable me to stop this rush towards the 1967 borders. [So] how do we do it?

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

[Natanyahu] 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.

[Natanyahu] 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 me 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 me 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 interrupts] And despite that, one of our own people, 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.

[Natanyahu] 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?… 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 per cent than to give a 100 per cent. And that’s the choice here. You gave two per cent and in that way you stopped the withdrawal, instead of 100 per cent.”

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.

[Natanyahu] In my estimation that will happen.

Is the transcript accurate? I do not know. Should viewers be surprised that a leader aggrandizes himself in front of a constituent? Probably not.

The fact of the video’s existence is not in dispute. Its content, and its greater meaning, are not entirely clear.

Something else is likewise not in dispute: Far fewer than 80% of Americans support Israel.

A February 2010 Gallup poll, the most recent on the subject currently available, indicates that 63% of Americans support Israel over Palestine. The only time during which American support of Israel has been higher during the time Gallup has tracked this measure (1988 to present) was in early 1991, after Israel was subjected to a scud missile attack. Even then, 64% was the peak.

In the intervening years, American support for Israel over Palestine has fallen as low as 38%, but support for Palestine has never risen above 20%. “Undecided” respondents have ranged from 22% to 54%.

Thanks to Jonathan Cook for the video.

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