Everyone Seems to Agree: Netanyahu Lies

Posted on Nov 12, 2011

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly told her cabinet that “every word that leaves [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s mouth is a lie.”

In the same week that Presidents Obama and Sarkozy accidentally “outed” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a liar in front of a crowd of senior French journalists, WikiLeaks released a diplomatic cable showing Netanyahu feared being held responsible for his role in inciting the 1995 assassination of left-wing Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Netanyahu had feared the immediate elections would mean political death for the right, which was viewed by many Israelis as partly culpable for Rabin’s death.

Israeli journalist Uri Averny, who was in contact with members of Rabin’s government at the time of his assassination, has the story below. —ARK

Uri Averny:

It appears that on the day of the assassination, Netanyahu spoke with the American ambassador (and Zionist Jew) Martin Indyk. Netanyahu, remembering his part in the incitement, was obviously in panic. He confided to the ambassador that if elections were to take place immediately, the entire Israeli right-wing would be wiped out.

But Shimon Peres, the new Prime Minister, did not call immediate elections, though several people (including myself) publicly urged him to do so. Netanyahu’s assessment was quite correct – the country was outraged, the right-wing was generally blamed for the assassination, and if elections had taken place, the Right would have been marginalized for many many years. The entire history of Israel would have taken a different turn.

Why did Peres refuse to do so? Because he hated Rabin. He did not want to be elected as the “executor of Rabin’s testament”, but on his own merits. Unfortunately, the public did not have the same high opinion of these “merits”.

During the next few months, Peres committed every conceivable (and inconceivable) mistake:  he approved the killing of a major Hamas militant which led to a flood of deadly suicide bombings all over the country. He attacked Lebanon, which led to the Kafr Kana massacre, and had to withdraw ignominiously. And then he called premature elections after all. In his election campaign, Rabin was not even mentioned. Thus Peres managed to be (narrowly) defeated by Netanyahu.

I once wrote that Peres suffered his most grievous insult just a few minutes before the assassination. Amir was waiting at the foot of the stairs from the tribune, his pistol ready. Peres came down the steps, and the assassin let him pass, like a fisherman contemptuously throwing a small specimen back into the sea. He was waiting for Rabin.

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