That was Clinton talking about Bibi Netanyahu. More great quotes may be found in this article by Akiva Eldar. Joe Lockhart, who was Clinton’s White House spokesperson, nails Netanyahu with this perfect description: ”[He is] one of the most obnoxious individuals you’re going to come into – just a liar and a cheat. He could open his mouth and you could have no confidence that anything that came out of it was the truth.”
On another topic altogether, Eldar has this to say:
“Two weeks before the war,” relates Baskin, “I passed along to the prime minister, the defense minister and the foreign minister a proposal that I had received from it to open a direct and secret channel with Hamas. The proposal was aimed at advancing agreement with regard to renewing the cease-fire for a long period, opening the crossing points, including Rafah, and Shalit’s release in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners. None of them responded. Two days before the ground operation began I transmitted the proposal to them again, and again I was not granted a response.”
Since then, Baskin has been living with the feeling that the Gaza war was not really a war of no choice aimed at protecting the inhabitants of the south. He is not the only one. Very senior people in the professional echelons who were in on the secrets of the process of the decision to attack Gaza are prepared to tell a commission of inquiry that the government did not make any real effort to renew the cease-fire. And that is putting it mildly.
Plus ca change…..
Tags: Israeli Politics