Palestine News Network

PNN

An Israeli senior official slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and said that he is driving Israel into international boycott and isolation and that he is not really willing to move forward with the peace talks.

Yediot Ahranot quoted the official’s statements as saying, “He [Netanyahu] should have released the Palestinian prisoners at once and not release prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit. He caused great damage for Mahmoud Abbas with his conduct. He only wants to preserve his status in his party and everyone knows what it looks like.”

According to Ynet, the senior official, who has been involved in running the country for years and knows its greatest secrets and sensitive issues, is opening up fierce disapproval of the Israeli prime minister and his conduct in several critical arenas, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel’s relations with the US and the battle against nuclear Iran.

He added, “While Jerusalem is attempting to minimize the importance of political criticism from Europe and calls for boycotts and sanctions against Israel, the top political echelon is admitting that these are issues that may dramatically hurt Israel. The year 2014 is marked as the key time in this sense, and it is feared that the calls to boycott Israel will only expand.”

“Our main problem,” the official said, “is not wars, but the economic situation. A UN resolution is not needed in order to impose sanctions on us or boycott Israeli products. It is sufficient for one country to start doing it and then it spreads across Europe. We are a country that exports, and in light of the situation with the Palestinians and the continued occupation, we are seen as an apartheid state. A boycott of Israel is the most dangerous thing that exists today. The deterioration (of the situation) can be very rapid.”

The senior official criticized European Union position regarding the signing of the Horizon 2020 project with Israel and said, “The Europeans must take a stance, and they want it to be a moral one. This position sides with the Palestinians – they live under occupation and Israel is the occupier.”

The official added that he no longer trusts in Netanyahu’s desire to reach an agreement with the Palestinians, despite his public statements on the subject. “Netanyahu has crossed the rubicon, there is no doubt,” the official cynically said. “He is now at a point where he wants the Palestinians to agree with his views and his opinions.”

Ynet reported, in regards to the Iranian issue, the senior official said that “due to Netanyahu’s outcries, Iran has become in recent years a missile superpower, second only to the US. People do not know this, but because of Netanyahu’s clamors, Iran has developed missile capabilities that are among the most advanced in the world.

“Why does he have to shout all the time that Israel will attack, what good will that do?! Israel’s second strike capabilities should have been made clear to Iran and he should have clarified that if something happens — Iran will disappear. But instead, he decided to threaten and shout, prompting Iran’s development of missile capabilities that they didn’t previously have.”

Concerning the relationship between Netanyahu and United States, the official said “Netanyahu does not understand Obama, nor the United States of today. Obama is outraged by Israel concerning the Iranian issue. In his words, “the American president is very patient. The problem is that support for Israel among Americans is declining.”

“Netanyahu constantly wants to be Churchill — he quotes him all the time — but in the modern world, it is better to be Nelson Mandela or the new Pope that has taken over the world with a storm. These are not Churchill’s times,” the official concluded.