Ex-envoy: Netanyahu said Rabin 'would be seen as failure had he lived'
Former US envoy to Israel Martin Indyk says that during Rabin's funeral, the then-opposition chief said the slain leader was only seen as a hero because of his death; PMO releases video showing Netanyahu was not sitting next to Indyk at funeral.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly said at the funeral of assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin that the deceased leader would have been seen as a failure if he had not been killed, claimed former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk in an interview with PBS Frontline published Wednesday.
"I remember Netanyahu saying to me: 'Look, look at this. He’s a hero now, but if he had not been assassinated, I would have beaten him in the elections, and then he would have gone into history as a failed politician,'" recalled Indyk.
"So I think even at that moment of tremendous support, a tragic moment of support for Rabin, Netanyahu was thinking, 'well, politically he was on the ropes before he was assassinated,'" the former ambassador told Frontline. "He exploited that and ran against Oslo in the (1996) elections and beat (Shimon) Peres, but he only beat him by something like a half of 1 percent."
Indyk also said that before Rabin's murder, Netanyahu had, as opposition leader, been "playing to his constituency in a way that went over the line" and that recently "he crossed the line by saying that the Arabs were coming out in droves to vote."
Formerly a US special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Indyk also discussed the relationship between Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama.
Netanyahu felt that the US had betrayed him by secretly negotiating with Iran. "When Bibi gets upset, he starts screaming and pounding the table," Indyk said of the prime minister's discovery that a framework agreement had been reached. "It was one of those moments."
The former envoy asserted that the agreement was not the end of the battle for Netanyahu.
"I think this is for him the fight of his life," Indyk told Frontline. "He is no longer rational about it. A rational prime minister of Israel, understanding the importance of the US-Israel relationship, would not confront the president on the most important agreement that he has managed to negotiate in his presidency and try to defeat him ... and to do it in a way that makes Israel a partisan issue in domestic American politics."
The Prime Minister's Office responded to Indyk's claims, calling them "Imaginary." Netanyahu's Likud party also issued a response, saying "This is another blatant lie by Martin Indyk, who does not cease to slander and besmirch Netanyahu."
Later, the PMO also released a video from Rabin's funeral, captured during Shimon Peres' eulogy. Netanyahu is seen sitting next to former president Moshe Katsav and businessman Martin Schlaff, but Indyk is not there, despite having claimed to have sat next to Netanyahu.
Indyk later clarified that his conversation with Netanyahu did not take place during the Mount Herzl funeral, but rather during a ceremony held at the Knesset.
"The conversation with Bibi took place on November 5, 1995 when we sat together at the Knesset ceremony to receive Rabin’s coffin to lie in state," Indyk said on Twitter in response to the denials from the PMO.
