‘The Palestine Cables’: WikiLeaks dox expose Netanyahu’s vision of Palestinian bantustan

Mondoweiss- Last week Alex Kane began a series called The Palestine Cables, based on Wikileaks data. His second entry.

The Obama administration's failure to bribe Israel's right-wing government into accepting a three-month settlement "freeze" should have ended talk about the "peace process," but Obama's Middle East team is still crawling towards a two-state solution with little light at the end of the tunnel. State Department cables released by WikiLeaks will dim the lights further. The cables show that Israeli officials' stated vision of a Palestinian state is one that is feeble and toothless--a vision that could snuff out any remaining hope of a viable Palestinian state.

During an April 2007 meeting with Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-NY), an ardent supporter of Israel, then-opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu said that "a return to the 1967 borders and dividing Jerusalem was not a solution since further
withdrawals would only whet the appetite of radical Islam." Netanyahu also referred to the Palestinian right of return as an "acid test," saying that "the Palestinians must drop the right of return and accept Israel's right to exist," and that "not one refugee could ever return."

Another cable, which describes a meeting Netanyahu held with a U.S. Congressional delegation two weeks after the 2009 Israeli elections, shows Netanyahu repeating his vision of a Palestinian bantustan. According to the cable, Netanyahu's vision of a Palestinian state is one where Palestinian sovereignty is "refined," meaning "without an army or control over air space and borders." Read more