Benjamin Netanyahu: "America is a thing you can move very easily"

The United States and Israel have made a huge effort this month to patch up the sometimes difficult relationship between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.  But a newly released video of Netanyahu, speaking in an unvarnished manner in 2001 about relations with the United States and the peace process, may cause some heartburn at the White House. 

"I know what America is," Netanyahu told a group of terror victims, apparently not knowing his words were being recorded.  "America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction.  They won't get in their way."

Netanyahu also bragged how he undercut the peace process when he was prime minister during the Clinton administration.  "They asked me before the election if I'd honor [the Oslo accords]," he said.  "I said I would, but ... I'm going to interpret the accords in such a way that would allow me to put an end to this galloping forward to the '67 borders.  How did we do it?  Nobody said what defined military zones were.  Defined military zones are security zones; as far as I'm concerned, the entire Jordan Valley is a defined military zone. Go argue."

~ Benjamin Netanyahu, as quoted by The Washington Post, July 16, 2010