Years ago Wikileaks included a whole bunch of emails that talked about Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel.
At the time, YNet reported, “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed expected release of classified State Department documents on WikiLeaks, saying that the United States “didn’t specifically indicate what will be exposed. I don’t think Israel is the center of attention.”
Netanyahu added that “is it customary for there to be an information gap between what is said publicly to what is said privately. When it comes to Israel, the gap isn’t too big. As far as other countries are concerned, the gaps are very very big. We shall wait and see.”
While the Wikileaks exposed that some world leaders privately claimed they didn’t like or trust Netanyahu, saying he didn’t keep his promises. In reality, Wikileaks exposed those same world leaders as liars, and that Netanyahu was a person whose public and private positions were mostly consistent and in sync.
Over the weekend the Trump Interview came out that exposed even more unfiltered information on Netanyahu – certainly on the level of Wikileaks exposure.
1) Netanyahu was planning on applying sovereignty to part (or all) of Judea and Samaria, as he claimed – and it was Trump who shut it down (we still think it was Jared, more specifically).
2) Netanyahu was opposed to and refused another settlement freeze.
3) Netanyahu was opposed to a Palestinian State and any negotiations that would make it happen.
There’s been a lot of debate as to whether Netanyahu was serious about applying sovereignty, and how the US messaging changed overnight. I think that puts much of that discussion to rest. The same for the Bar Ilan speech.
On the worrisome side, Trump thinks Benny Gantz is someone who could usher in a Palestinian state if he becomes PM.