A recently-revealed tape has shown Binyamin
Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, discussing ways to undermine the
Oslo Accords and calling the United States "easy" to manipulate.
The video was filmed in 2001, apparently without Netanyahu's
knowledge, during a meeting with Israeli settlers in the occupied West
Bank. It aired on Friday night on Israel's Channel 10, and several
translations have been posted online.
At one point on the tape, Netanyahu threatens a
"broad attack" against the Palestinian Authority.
"The main thing, first of all, is to hit them. Not just one blow, but
blows that are so painful that the price will be too heavy to be
borne," Netanyahu said. "A broad attack on the Palestinian Authority."
The tape was shot during the early stages of the
second intifada, when violence between Israelis and Palestinians was
escalating. Netanyahu was speaking with settlers who lost family members
to Palestinian attacks.
Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister at the time, had recently
deployed additional Israeli troops in the West Bank.
Undermining the Oslo Accords
Netanyahu - who did not hold political office when the recording was
made - was dismissive of the United States, calling it easily
manipulated.
"I know what America is," Netanyahu said. "America is a thing you can
move very easily, move it in the right direction. They won't get in the
way."
Netanyahu also spoke extensively about undermining the Oslo Accords,
the agreement signed in 1993 which set a framework for future
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
The Oslo Accords specified that Israel would be allowed to keep
"military zones" in the West Bank in any future agreement with the
Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu told the settlers he would use that
loophole to retain large portions of Palestinian territory.
"I'm going to interpret the accords in such a way that would allow me
to put an end to this galloping forward to the '67 borders," he said.
"How do we do it? Nobody said what defined military zones were.
Defined military zones are security zones; as far as I'm concerned, the
entire Jordan Valley is a defined military zone."
In the recording, Netanyahu described Bill Clinton - the former US
president who helped to negotiate the accords - as "radically
pro-Palestinian".
