Netanyahu told U.S. he supported land swap with Palestinians, WikiLeaks reveals
Cable recounts February 2009 meeting with Senator Benjamin Cardin, where premier laid out economic peace plan and said he did not want to govern West Bank and Gaza.
By Haaretz Service Tags: Israel news Benjamin Netanyahu WikiLeaksPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Obama administration just two weeks after elected to Knesset that he supported the idea of a land exchange and had no desire to govern Palestinian territories, according to a diplomatic cable released by the online whistleblower WikiLeaks on Sunday.
"Netanyahu expressed support for the concept of land swaps, and emphasized that he did not want to govern the West Bank and Gaza but rather to stop attacks from being launched from there," read a February 2009 diplomatic cable describing a meeting between Netanyahu and a delegation led by Senator Benjamin Cardin.
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Benjamin Netanyahu attempts to shift the world’s focus away from Israel’s blatant transgressions of international law in a public relations campaign to buy time. |
| Photo by: Dror Artzi |
According to the cable, Netanyahu laid out to the U.S. lawmakers a framework for his economic peace plan as the best option for a future peace deal with the Palestinians.
His idea was to begin "rapidly building a pyramid from the ground up" to allow the Palestinian West Bank to develop a strong and independent infrastructure.
Netanyahu presented this program for "economic peace," which he said would improved the quality of life for Palestinians in the West Bank, well before elections. Palestinian officials, however, refused to meet with their Israeli counterparts.
Another cable released earlier this week indicates that Israel tried to coordinate the Gaza war with the Palestinian Authority and that both the PA and Egypt refused to take control of the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.
The whistle-blowing website obtained some 250,000 diplomatic cables between the U.S. and its allies, which Washington had urged the site not to publish.
In a June 2009 meeting between Defense Minister Ehud Barak and a U.S. congressional delegation, Barak claimed that the Israeli government "had consulted with Egypt and Fatah prior to Operation Cast Lead, asking if they were willing to assume control of Gaza once Israel defeated Hamas."
"Not surprisingly," Barak said in the meeting, Israel "received negative answers from both."
While similar reports of such attempts to link the PA and Egypt to Israel's war with Hamas had already surfaced in the past, the cable released by WikiLeaks on Sunday represents the first documented proof of such a move.
In the document, Barak also expressed his feeling that "the Palestinian Authority is weak and lacks self-confidence, and that Gen. Dayton's training helps bolster confidence."
The meeting which the cable documents took place just days before U.S. President Barack Obama's Cairo speech, and a few weeks after Netanyahu's first visit to the United States, a visit which revealed the deep differences between Obama and himself.
The cable also refers to what Barak describes as the debate within the Israeli cabinet in regards to a "development of a response to President Obama's upcoming speech in Cairo."
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If swapping the arab triangle in the Galilee for another plot of land was part of the package then some of the more hardline members of the government would feel they have an insentive to back the idea of creating a palestinians state. It would also be very popular amongst the Israeli public. If Obama wants his legacy he should put this idea to Abbas. Just redraw the border give the arabs citizenship of the palestinian state and they loose their israeli citizenship and its that easy all that happens is they wake up one morning to find out that now they pay their taxes to a different country. Bibi is legiteimatly willing to create an arabs state he just doesn't want us to get screwed whilst the left do not think about Israel's interests and just want to create an arab state as quick as possible. Bibi also leads a right wing party and a right wing coalition so its not as easy for him to do deals certainly if there are all kinds of pre conditions.
We followed the media and we knew about PM Netanyahu's emphasis on the structural development of the West Bank and his non-political stance (a political stance would have meant accepting Kadima's diplomatic progress with President Abbas). PM Netanyahu remains wishy-washy about what territorial percentage of the West Bank he doesn't wish to oversee the Palestinians. So does he accept the territorial swap (97% of WB) which former PM Ehud Olmert almost resolved with President Abbas? This is what's frustrating about this particular administration - you really don't know where they stand and why they're in office.
Sorry Haaretz, but this is a twist with the truth. Nethanyahu has NEVER supported any such thing as a independent Palestinian State and this support for a land swap is typical Nethanyahu BS. Yesterday Akiva Eldar published a revealing article which showed how Nethanyahu did all he can to sabotage peace and to be a unreliable partner. The score so far: several documents published by wikileaks reveal that Israel did all to sabotage the peace process.
Netanyahu told the Americans what they wanted to hear. Which apparently is Netanyahu diplomacy in action tell people what they want to hear and then do nothing to implement it. As Mubarak has said Netanyahu is a charming man, but you cannot believe a word he says.
conversation I have had with people close to him that this is his view so what makes you think he has changed his mind? Talks which he has wanted badly have stalled because of the settlement freeze issue as there is disagreement within the coalition. If as Bibi has stated talks can get going and gain a momentum then if the Palestinians are serious then peace can be achieved with him. Not only is he charming but I think he is the Palestinians best chance if they are truly serious so I would suggest they don't delay any further and get talking.
but people have difficulty in recognizing it, since it mutates its image often.
Please Israel, just say what your borders are so we can all see how fair your position is.
The borders are the subject of talks but not the only subject. PA already controls about 96% of Arab population - they should not be too greedy grab more land - that historically not theirs. They are only about 1.8 mils - Manhattan population population.
and are looking for excuses avoid negotiatiating a final settlement.
in line with 1967 internationally recognized borders and with East Jerusalem as Its capital means the Rabs will come cleaner then a whistle. Anything else offered by Israel is meaningless trash talk.
Did you notice that Russia and China and, yes, Iran have publicly accepted democracy? Netanyahu's intentions cannot be assessed by reading public speeches. Ask him if he accepts full Palestinian sovereignty, including airspace and borders with Jordan. Ask him for the border beyond which Jewish settlers must be evacuated. Then call again.
They won't negotiate on the deal killers. Borders are to negotiated! UNSCR 242 !
Border control and airspace have always been an interim issue Why don't you ask the Arabs?
his is pretty interim---dont you think????. " One day after the UN vote to partition Palestine, Menachem Begin, the commander of the Irgun gang and Israel's future Prime Minister between 1977-1983, proclaimed: "The Partition of Palestine is illegal. It will never be recognized .... Jerusalem was and will for ever be our capital. Eretz Israel will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And for Ever." (Iron Wall p. 25) * Or how about this for interim eh psm " In 1938, Ben-Gurion made it clear of his support for the "Jewish state" on part of Palestine was only as a stepping ground for a complete conquest. He wrote: "[I am] satisfied with part of the country, but on the basis of the assumption that after we build up a strong force following the establishment of the state--we will abolish the partition of the country and we will expand to the whole Land of Israel." (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 107 & One Palestine Complete, p. 403) *
If so, perhaps you can show us the section that allows for either side to keep helping themselves to land not on their side of the Amistice line---eh psm. Read what Lord Cradon had to say on the metter of stealing lands because it had been conquered in a war. ""Knowing as I did the unsatisfactory nature of the 1967 line, I wasn’t prepared to use wording in the Resolution that would have made that line permanent. Nonetheless, it is necessary to say again that the overwhelming principle was the ‘inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war’ and that meant that there could be no justification for the annexation of territory on the Arab side of the 1967 line merely because it had been conquered in the 1967 war."Lord Caradon.
If the Israelis really are serious about a fair exchange of land ,satisfactory for both sides, then the Palestinians should take the opportunity , show good will and stop insisting on 1967 borderline.
Yes those Palestinians are so intransigent, they insist on the 22% of historic Palestine that the world recognises as occupied; Israel however only insists that they have more than the 78% of historic Palestine that the world already agrees is the state of Israel.
Get out of the territories ! recognize a palestinians State and stop the chit chat ! palestinians don't want your economic peace plan. Just get out !
your own state on all the WB,Gaza and part of Jetusalem you could have had it many times over, starting after your failed war of annihilation in 1948
Nonsense... there is no arab settlement in Israel, and you do know it.
"thus Ariel for Um al-Fahm, Givat Zeev for Taibe, Qiryat Arba for Qufr Qassem. It only makes good sense!!" To hell with the idea of a viable contiguous state then? Well it’s easy to see where you're coming from Jehudah.
palestinians were living there for centuries before So called Israelis came from different nationalities to settle the already poulated areas!
So what's new ???
does it mean he was sincere.?
If leaked document says something positive about Israel-then leaked document is fake If leaked document says something negative about Israel-then leaked document is true. Moreover,since there is no possibility to know where does a talkbacker live,one can claim he lives (or lived) in Gush Etzion-and hence make us deduce he is an Israeli Jew. Last,but not least:Haaretz is an Israeli Jewish paper.But look at the comment that accompanies the photo of Mr.Netanyahu: "Benjamin Netanyahu attempts to shift the world’s focus away from Israel’s blatant transgressions of international law in a public relations campaign to buy time." Of course,no such thing can be deduced from the photo...
Arabs do not want a final negated deal They just keep upping their demands with no end in sight
Always has been --always will be. Here read what successive zionistt leaders have said. "In 1938, Ben-Gurion made it clear of his support for the "Jewish state" on part of Palestine was only as a stepping ground for a complete conquest. He wrote: "[I am] satisfied with part of the country, but on the basis of the assumption that after we build up a strong force following the establishment of the state--we will abolish the partition of the country and we will expand to the whole Land of Israel." (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 107 & One Palestine Complete, p. 403) * One day after the UN vote to partition Palestine, Menachem Begin, the commander of the Irgun gang and Israel's future Prime Minister between 1977-1983, proclaimed: "The Partition of Palestine is illegal. It will never be recognized .... Jerusalem was and will for ever be our capital. Eretz Israel will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And for Ever." (Iron Wall p. 25) * ""Shamir has said Israel must keep the territories in order to accommodate the immigrants. "A great aliyah [immigration]," he said, "requires a Greater Israel."(5) He has insisted that, although Soviet Jews are not being directed to the territories, any Jew has the right to live anywhere in the land of Israel, which for most Israelis includes the territories.
You know psm---those settler thugs who steal/burn/murder with impunity ---with your support. Do stop the bs.
What does a couple of selective quotes from a couple of right wingers who are no longer with us have to do with today