A video recorded in 2001 of Israeli Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu, shows him talking with settlers who lost family members in attacks made by Palestinians about Israeli military strategy, foreign policy, and its relationship with the US.Netanyahu, who was not Prime Minister at the time, speaks casually to the settlers about how he manipulated foreign policy and peace agreements.
The video was recorded during the beginning of the second intifada. Netanyahu explained the Israeli strategy, ‘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.’
He went on to say, ‘I know what America is. America is a thing you can move verily easily, move it in the right direction. They won’t get in the way.’
Netanyahu went on to talk about how he did not act in good faith during the Oslo Accords. He said that the use of the term ‘military zones’ in the West Bank was a term subject to interpretation. Although he was not in office at the time, he said he would use the vagueness of the term to his advantage so that settlement construction could proceed on Palestinian land.
The video comes just two weeks after the Israeli Prime Minister met with US President Barack Obama in Washington. The meeting was much more amicable than their last encounter in March when Obama left the meeting abruptly as a response to Netanyahu’s settlement plans which failed to satisfy the US president. In their most recent on meeting in July the two leaders reaffirmed their ‘unbreakable’ commitment as allies.
