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Netanyahu. Not worried
Photo: Dudu Azoulay
WikiLeaks set to make waves Sunday

Der Spiegel: US officials called Ahmadinejad 'Hitler'

German paper releases info from WikiLeaks ahead of time while Netanyahu assures public Israel has nothing to worry about, meanwhile Britain prepares for Muslim backlash to 'anti-Islam' sentiment possibly evident in secret files

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke ahead of the scheduled release of an additional quarter of a million WikiLeaks documents Sunday evening, casting doubt that anything significant would be revealed regarding Israel.

 

"Usually there is a gap between what is said in public and what is said in private, but regarding Israel this gap is not large," Netanyahu said. "Regarding other countries, the gaps are extremely large."

 

Meanwhile Der Spiegel began releasing headlines from the WikiLeaks files before they had been published, however, and its webpage enumerates a number of unattractive references used by US officials for various world leaders.

 

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is "Hitler", according to the German daily, while French President Nicolas Sarkozy is the emperor who has no clothes. The president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, is "motivated by paranoia", the report says.

 

In addition, the documents are said to state that US President Barack Obama is overly attuned to the East while letting relations with Europe slide.

  

Netanyahu admitted Sunday that he did not know whether the US administration was already aware of the contents of the documents which, if true to form, are set to cast a harsh light over much of its foreign policy.

 

The Foreign Ministry was also preparing for the release, with Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon remarking that "no document can harm our relations with the US".

 

Another ministry official told Ynet that Israel has nothing to hide. "We have nothing to fear, it's just business as usual and if specific problems arise we will deal with them as they come," he said.

 

Meanwhile, the British government warned that the documents' release could elicit ire from the country's large Muslim community. Officials from the British Foreign Office told the London Times that WikiLeaks could reveal statements seen as "anti-Islam".

 

Earlier the US warned its allies, among them Britain and Israel, that they may also be mentioned in the secure files made public by the organization.

 

Ronen Medzini contributed to this report

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 11.28.10, 17:51
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