Le Guernigou begins: "French President Nicolas Sarkozy branded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 'a liar' in a private conversation with President Barack Obama that was accidentally broadcast to journalists during last week's G20 summit in Cannes."
US President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy shake hands as they hold a joint press conference ahead of the start of the G20 Summit of Heads of State and Government in Cannes, France, 11/03/11. (photo: Getty Images)
Sarkozy Tells Obama Netanyahu Is a "Liar"
08 November 11
rench President Nicolas Sarkozy branded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "a liar" in a private conversation with US President Barack Obama that was accidentally broadcast to journalists during last week's G20 summit in Cannes.
"I cannot bear Netanyahu, he's a liar," Sarkozy told Obama, unaware that the microphones in their meeting room had been switched on, enabling reporters in a separate location to listen in to a simultaneous translation.
"You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you," Obama replied, according to the French interpreter.
The technical gaffe is likely to cause great embarrassment to all three leaders as they look to work together to intensify international pressure on Iran over its nuclear ambitions.
The conversation was not initially reported by the small group of journalists who overheard it because it was considered private and off-the-record. But the comments have since emerged on French websites and can be confirmed by Reuters.
White House press secretary Jay Carney declined to comment on the conversation when asked by reporters traveling with Obama to an event in Philadelphia.
Obama's apparent failure to defend Netanyahu is likely to be leapt on by his Republican foes, who are looking to unseat him in next year's presidential election and have portrayed him as hostile to Israel, Washington's closest ally in the region.
Pushing Netanyahu risks alienating Israel's strong base of support among the US public and in Congress.
Netanyahu's office declined to comment, but one of his deputies, Vice Premier Silvan Shalom, played down the episode.
"Everyone talks about everyone. Sometimes even good friends say things about each other, certainly in such competitive professions," Shalom, a former foreign minister and rival of Netanyahu in the rightist Likud party, told Israel's Army Radio.
"So you have to consider the main things. Is Obama a friend of Israel? Is Sarkozy a friend of Israel? Is their policy a consistent policy of support for Israel? The answer to all of these questions is affirmative and, as far as I'm concerned, that is what's important."
Palestinian Worries
Obama and Netanyahu have had a rocky relationship as US efforts to broker a Middle East peace deal have foundered, with the US president openly criticizing Jewish settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories.
It was unclear why exactly Sarkozy had criticized Netanyahu. However, European diplomats have largely blamed Israel for the breakdown in peace talks and have expressed anger over Netanyahu's approval of large-scale settlement building.
During their bilateral meeting on November 3, on the sidelines of the Cannes summit, Obama criticized Sarkozy's surprise decision to vote in favor of a Palestinian request for membership of the UN cultural heritage agency UNESCO.
"I didn't appreciate your way of presenting things over the Palestinian membership of UNESCO. It weakened us. You should have consulted us, but that is now behind us," Obama was quoted as saying.
The October 31 UNESCO vote marked a success for the Palestinians in their broader thrust for recognition as a sovereign state in the UN system - a unilateral initiative fiercely opposed by Israel and the United States.
As a result of the vote, Washington was compelled to halt its funding for UNESCO under a 1990s law that prohibits Washington from giving money to any UN body that grants membership to groups that do not have full, legal statehood.
Obama told Sarkozy that he was worried about the impact if Washington had to pull funding from other UN bodies such as the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the IAEA nuclear watchdog if the Palestinians gained membership there.
"You have to pass the message along to the Palestinians that they must stop this immediately," Obama said.
The day the conversation took place, the Palestinians announced that they would not seek membership of any other UN agency.
Sarkozy confirmed that France would not take any unilateral decisions when the UN Security Council discusses a Palestinian membership request, a debate expected later this month.
"I am with you on that," Obama replied.
(Writing by Crispian Balmer; Additional reporting by Dan Williams; Editing by Andrew Roche.)
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Comments
We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol in the RSN Reader comments section. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We'll start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we'll have to ramp up the moderation.
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Can you imagine how much better the world would be if all the "world leader", no matter what political stripe, disappeared!?
And why is it always the TRUTH that is a problem?
Just ask the bathtub! : P
Internecine tribal warfare has been going on for thousands of years. If it were not for our own oil gluttony, they would never have had the wherewithal to involve us in their favorite pastime
Netanyahu is a liar, of the worst sort, because his ethnic cleansing intentions are perfectly clear. And even if he loses power, it is unlikely that any of the Israelis you mention above will succeed him.
Yeah ... "guys on steroids."
However, I'd include a lot of "gals."
Unfortunately, violence-monger ing seems to cross gender lines.
Sigh.
Ralph
I'm sympatico with your "cooperation to replace competition" with respect to many things.
I'm a turn-of-the-(20 th)century Milwaukee-style socialist, if you get my meaning.
At any rate, thanks for the well-written piece.
Ralph
Benjamin Netanyahu has no gift for diplomacy, nor does he seem at all interested in any concession to the sensibilities of Diaspora Jews.
Frankly, I would not have made such an audacious statement before about a year ago, when I witnessed Netanyahu getting such ovations from the US Congress.
Yowsers.
Maybe I'd be an anti-semite if I knew what a semite was.
why should the palestinians stop seeking statehood and admission to the UN? how is that to their advantage? israel will never negotiate a palestinian state unless pressure is put on them.
intelligent assessment. If it wasn't for the oil, no country would give a damn about the middle east. Israel is our only true and dependable friend there and that is the basis of our closeness.
If you think of Israel as an ally of the US, please research the Israeli attack on a clearly identified US naval ship, the USNS Liberty in 1967, an attack that killed, as I remember, 35 US seamen.
YOUR LOW RATING SHOWS HOW MUCH READERS AGREE WITH YOUR VIEWS.
And let's not begin to suffer under the illusion that the number of thumbs up or down one comment receives is any legitimate evidence, in and of itself, that said comment not valuable. All it really shows is how many readers here, like you say, agree or disagree with one's views. That could mean it's not valuable, but it also could mean nothing of the sort.
In other words, all kinds of views ought to be debated here, implicit in which is the related claim that people of all kinds of views ought to be welcomed here.
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/uss-liberty-dead-in-the-water/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_%28AGTR-5%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident
Interesting facts, no?
I agree with you about the "nobody giving a damn about the Middle East but for the oil".
It was the British who made Israel a country in 1948 in carving up the middle East post-WW11. At that time they long had the sympathy and compassion of the world, which they have since squandered by increasingly doing unto Palestine what the Nazis did to them, becoming a heavily-armed and nuclear power thanks to the US under the obtuse leadership and intensified warlike paranoia of Netanahu's right-wing Likud, who stomp on all dissent within and obviously without (including the US and the powerful Pro-Israel lobby), continue illegal land-grabs and environmental destruction of ancient vineyards, demolition of homes and all the other "collateral" degradation, just like it's big-brother in arms the US, only more localized.
Hell, Sarkozy is hardly a lefty but at least he knows a quasi-Fascist US-spliced P.M. when he sees one and has to deal with him regularly.
And oh aye -ever heard of Rachel Corrie?
Thanks for the fill-in information and reminder. I run this stuff off the top of my head on RSN and am glad of any pertinent stuff I may have neglected. -I was kinda sticking to relatively recent history which is more pertinent to the current status-quo.
People always talk about the 'Balfour Declaration' as if it makes the handing over of Palestine legal, but remember, Balfour was himself a colonialist of the worst sort and was heavily opposed in Parliament, where other members predicted what would come to pass, what has come to pass. Even then lobbying by Zionists played a great role in such decision-making.
Additionally, we should know that there was great dissent amongst Jews at the time, many of whom did not feel it was right to take the land from the Arabs.
Gandhi on the Palestine conflict - 1938
"Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French...What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct...If they [the Jews] must look to the Palestine of geography as their national home, it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British gun. A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb. They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs... As it is, they are co-sharers with the British in despoiling a people who have done no wrong to them. I am not defending the Arab excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightly regard as an unacceptable encroachment upon their country. But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds." Mahatma Gandhi, quoted in "A Land of Two Peoples" ed. Mendes-Flohr.
I will try to make you understand why Israel builds settlements, since that seems to be the latest reason for the hatred. If you were waiting 63 years for a peace agreement, and every agreement that is made is broken by the opposing party, you get to thinking that the Palestinians don’t really want peace. If they did, they could have had it from the beginning. Their only goal, stated over and over again since 1948, has been to drive the Jews into the sea. That goal has never changed. Why shouldn’t the Israelis build in their land? They have always had a policy for trading land for peace, and have already done so. Why do the Palestinians say that no Jew can live in their land if peace is ever declared and a two state solution is agreed upon? Israel allows Arabs to live in Israel. Why can’t Jews and Arabs live together as well in any country under Palestinian control?
Also, there has been no hostility toward "Jewish people" on this page that I have seen. Most criticism here seems directed at the ethnic cleansing policies of the zionists. You know, yourself, that these religious fanatics are dangerously deranged. And you also know that if a major war breaks out in the Mideast, it will be 'proactive' israel who starts it just like when they Pearl-Harboured the Egyptians or massacred the women and children of the Palestinians on a number of occasions. They withhold food and medicine, destroy what little the Palestinians have left, and try to seed as much pain into these poor people as they can. Most importantly for American Judaism though, is that israel's star is on the wane. The American vox populi is changing, repelled by what it sees. Yes, even us who can genocide with the best of them. If you like, the good Rabbis of Brooklyn, via jewsagainstzion ism.com, will be happy to educate you on the realities of zionism. They are terrified. If you'd rather wallow around in the old b.s. "anti-semitism" shtick, do so. You'll never even see it coming.
Further poll results are that not a majority of US Jews feel very warm towards Israel, and in 2011, 55% haven't been to Israel. What does this mean, that Israel to them is just an abstract concept they bought into, not really part of their lives, but that it should exist anyway, because they've been brainwashed into thinking simply that Jews must support Israel? I think it's pretty clear that the US Jewish community was hoodwinked by the original Zionists to give their potent support for the Jewish state, and they’ve been highly successful, spreading their creed to a majority of the US Jewish population, who, in practice, are now Zionists.
I see nothing wrong with my pointing it out to you and other Jews and asking you to please re-consider the brainwashing you have succumbed to. It’s wrong to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Palestine. I know it's brainwashing because I also was once brainwashed, as are many other non-Jews in this stupid country, but I've since cured myself, and you can too.
exiled will likely carry a burden of justified revenge on a group
of people poorer and less educated. Torture, hatred and punishment
are carried thru generations if not policed by neutral forces.
I have come to despise Israel -- I do not despise Jews. I do not
support anyone who defends Israel. It is a rogue state.
What is depressing is to see how Jews are taught that the world hates them.
Do some research, inform yourself independently.
If you want to witness some of the blindest and most cruel hatred I have ever seen, go to youtube and put in "settlers attack palestinians" and watch that for a few hours.
See, that's the problem, peace first.
So long as some self-described "Jewish" people see themselves as a distinct "people" or "nation" or "folk" or fucking whatever, they'll be alienated.
Shit....they've "alienated themselves!
Hey.....I've been an atheist for about 50 years. I think all Jews, Christians, Muslims, Daoists, Hindus, et al. are delusional, cowardly nincompoops, at best.
You put off ultimate responsibility for moral decisions to some far-of (usually male) god, who tells you what to do. So everything you do after subscribing to this so-called "religion" is just a matter of "following orders."
Well........FUCK YOU!!!!
You cowardly neo-nazi pig-dog cowards you!
Google "Fritz Kuhn."
Think about it.
duh
I wouldn't be saying such stuff if such pig-dogs as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck weren't still "on the air," by the way.
They're doing exactly what Fritz Kuhn was doing back in the 30s -- shilling for corporate fascism.
duh
Why don't more people see this? Are they THAT "mesmerized" by marketeers?
Sheesh.
I probably hardly need to state this but Ghandi also stated, on being asked what he thought of Western civilization "I think it would be a very good idea!" -which sums up so many, many aspects of Imperialism! Which side of the fence d'you think present-day Israel stands (having experience them both)?
shrinking map of Palestine
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
book by John Mearsheimer, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and Stephen Walt, Professor of International Relations at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, published in late August 2007. The book describes the lobby as a "loose coalition of individuals and organizations who actively work to steer U.S. foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction".[3] The book "focuses primarily on the lobby's influence on U.S. foreign policy and its negative effect on American interests".[4] The authors also argue that "the lobby's impact has been unintentionally harmful to Israel as well"
Also, why do you all ignore the stated pledge that the Palestinians want a Jeuden-free land whereas Israel remains a democracy and allows all to live in Israel?
Another thing the opponents of Israel ignore is that when the 9 month settlement freeze that the Israelis agreed to last year was over, the Palestinians then wanted to talk. They didn't agree to any talks before that!
Does that show good faith?
Probably, like the Israeli woman who recently told me that people in Gaza can come and go as they wish, you have never entered the occupied territories and witnessed what is going on. Or were you one of those soldiers I recently saw dragging Palestinians along the ground by the hair? Probably you have never spoken to a Palestinian, particularly those in many West Bank towns who are married to Jews. This tired old stuff does not represent Palestinians or the Arab world's intentions towards Israel. And thank goodness, there are many brave Israelis who are not afraid to acknowledge this, despite unbelievable pressure exerted by family members and/or their society.
"Israeli authorities are planning mass expulsions of around 60,000 Palestinians, specifically in order to free up more territory for Jewish settlements. The Nakba (“catastrophe”, as Palestinians refer to the ethnic cleansing that accompanied Israel's founding in 1948) never finished."
"Aug 2, 2010 – Israel moved Sunday to deport the offspring of hundreds of migrant workers, mostly small children who were born in Israel, speak Hebrew and ...'
Israel is apartheid state - aka former South Africa ... Palestine does NOT want Israel JEWISH state - as fanatic Netanyahu wants ..
There are some messages here. Obama indicates how much Israel manipulates the USA: "...I have to deal with him even more often than you...”
We saw the USA invade Iraq at the prompting of known neocons of the Lobby. Now we see Israel again pushing for U.S. action against Iran. It is this manipulation of the USA by the Lobby that costs us with people of the Middle East who see it so clearly and, sadly, often respond with acts of violence against us.
Note too the comment, "Pushing Netanyahu risks alienating Israel's strong base of support among the US public and in Congress." One has to ask, just how much support do candidates get from this "base?" A look back to 2008 and pictures of candidates Obama and McCain having to visit Jerusalem while donning yarmulkes says plenty. When Netanyahu spoke before Congress, members were tripping over themselves to cater to him like an idol of worship. Many of the same treat our own president with contempt to include the infamous incident of Republican Rep. Joe Wilson calling the President a liar during the State of the Union address.
It is no wonder we are seeing legions of Americans taking to the streets demanding change in government they want to represent them and not the interests of so many others.
Israel has never seen peace. The British voted for partition and then joined the Arabs to wipe out the Jews. They never figured they would survive. They did. Again... So sixty five years of warfare began. How many rockets were sent into Israel, killing not only Jews, but Muslims and Christians who live there as citizens of the State? How many shells were sent from the Golan Heights into the chldren playing in their playgrounds. Sure, side with the people who want the Heights back...Irrational...
Woody Allen says that Jews have a right to be paranoid, the whole world is out to get them. From the comments today, I would submit the evidence that Woody is, or course, right. I would also submit that man has never been a rational creature. We are hunters and killers. We are deceptive in order to survive. All animals are by nature. Our own National motto should be changed to lie, steal, and cheat, until you get caught. That includes all our past presidents..Hav e you read anything else in the papers recently? Watergate anyone? Iran-Contra anyone? Cain/Clinton anyone? I rest my case.
How many US made bombers/bombs were sent from the Israel into the children in Gaza playing in their playgrounds.
2 years ago - look - children killed in gaza conflict -
Sep 9, 2009 – (CBS/ AP) Well over half of nearly 1400 Palestinians killed in Israel's Gaza war were civilians, including 252 children younger than 16, ..
get your facts right.
In April 1967, after Syria heavily shelled Israeli villages from the Golan Heights, Israel shot down six Syrian MiG fighter planes and warned Syria against future attacks.[62][64]
In the period between Israel’s War of Independence (1948) and the Six Day War (1967), the Syrians constantly harassed Israeli border communities by firing artillery shells from their dominant positions on the Golan Heights.[65][66 ] In October 1966 Israel brought the matter up before the United Nations. Five nations sponsored a resolution criticizing Syria for its actions but it failed to pass due to a Soviet veto.[67][68][69]
Former Israeli General Mattityahu Peled said that more than half of the border clashes before the 1967 war "were a result of our security policy of maximum settlement in the demilitarised area."[70] Israeli incursions into the zone were responded to with Syrians shooting. Israel in turn would retaliate with military force.[59] Sir Alec Douglas-Home, former Prime Minister of the UK, stated that when he was visiting the Galilee a few months before the 1967 war "at regular intervals the Russian-built forts on the Golan Heights used to lob shells into the villages, often claiming civilian casualties." He said after the 1973 war that any agreement between the two sides "must clearly put a stop the that kind of
And then we would use artillery and later the air force also, and that’s how it was...The Syrians, on the fourth day of the war, were not a threat to us.’” The New York Times, May 11, 1997
ref:
www.ifamericaknew.org/history/origin.html
wars (except 1973) were started by Israel
how can you say that the un is neutral. note the history of the golan heights. veto by the russians? there is nothing neutral when it comes to oil.everyone has an axe to grind.
the truth is, everyone in the middle east is genetically out of northern Africa. They came into the middle east over ninety thousand years ago. the entire world is black african by genetic markers and codes. when they talk about the three liars, and they all lie, remember that they are all black. if you think that is crazy, check out the origin of man in google. or do anthropologists have an axe to grind too? I was married to one of those people for eighteen years. the liars are really funny talking about lying among themselves. they are all liars! always this holier than thou nonsense. never ends.....
The modern meaning of Semite, from European Christian origins, means Jew and does not refer to a linguistic category. The linguistic Semites share both a "magical" language structure, providing great musical and emotional power and a bedouin ethos. One is either in or out of the "garden" as the anthropologist, Gulick, put it. As for the second meaning, both pro and anti semitic sentiments appear in this string. I oppose both views.
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com
Here is a small part of it: |
"Barack Obama's dislike of Benjamin Netanyahu was not a state secret prior to the publication of his candid exchange about the Israeli prime minister with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. So the fact the two have a low opinion of Netanyahu and consider dealing with him to be a burden isn't exactly news. But while much of the commentary about this kerfuffle has centered on the question of who should be most embarrassed by the revelation — Netanyahu or his two highly placed critics — there is a more important point here.
"Netanyahu has a well-earned reputation as a prickly and somewhat unpleasant fellow to deal with-in Israeli political circles as well as the world of international diplomacy. But when Sarkozy and Obama grouse about him, the resentment they are giving voice to hasn't all that much to do with whether or not Netanyahu is a charm school dropout. What really annoys them is his inherent skepticism about the peace process."
Read more at http://www.JewishWorldReview.com
I experienced both - and both propaganda "schemes" lead to CENSORSHIP of information - especially when it comes to the Israeli-Middle East conflict.
Ask where is ALL PROPAGANDA to bomb the Iran comes from? Look at Iraq now and follow the facts/money.
And, as a matter of fact, ARTEMIS, I was in Israel last year when the 9 month moratorium on settlement building ended. As soon as it ended, the Palestinians demanded a renewal of the moratorium, giving assurances that they were ready to enter into peace talks, though they had given the same assurances at the beginning of the previous moratorium, but never once agreed to the talks. I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be to have to deal with this kind of chicanery.
But I've also read numerous sane, coherent arguments for a reasoned approach to what's obviously one of the most intractable foreign policy issues in recent human history. After 100 years of sustained conflict, and given recognition of the vital U.S. strategic interest this region signifies, it's long since time to achieve a two-state solution that cements and respects mutual sovereignty, legal, political, economic and cultural autonomy, and an end to perpetual war. The real question is whether vision and leadership exists on both sides to make this happen, as it did in Northern Ireland. Does it exist?
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