A newly-released email exchange from Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state shows Clinton responding to the statement that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “can never equal his dead brother” with “I told you so.”
On May 31, 2010 Israeli forces boarded the Gaza “Freedom Flotilla” in order to conduct inspections, as it was breaking a blockade of the Gaza strip. Footage from the incident shows Israeli soldiers being attacked as they boarded the flotilla. As a result of the incident, 10 activists were killed and multiple Israeli soldiers were injured.
The day of the raid, Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal emailed Clinton with “several observations on the Israeli raid.” Blumenthal’s first observation was that the Gaza flotilla raid could be considered “Bibi’s Entebbe in reverse.”
According to Blumenthal, Netanyahu “can never equal his dead brother” and this “desperate” need to seek his father’s approval was allegedly a catalyst for the Gaza flotilla raid:
“The father, Benzion Netanyahu; 100 years old, secretary to Jabotinsky, and denounced as too radical by Begin, adored his son Yoni, heroically killed at Entebbe. Benyamin has never measured up. Benzion has constantly criticized him in public for his deviations from the doctrine of Greater Israel. Bibi desperately seeks his father's approbation and can never equal his dead brother. See Benzion's most recent scathing undermining of his son Bibi and Bibi's tearful tribute to his brother just last month.”
“The raid on the ship to Gaza resembles the raid on Entebbe, except that there are no hostages, no guns, it's not in Africa, and it's a fiasco; otherwise, it's Entebbe. (Then, there's Ehud Barak reliving his youth as a raider killing Palestinians in Lebanon, a feat memorialized in Spielberg's film, Munich. Ultimately, it didn't work out well that time either. The film captures the moral quandaries, which appear to have escaped the participants.)”
At the end of the email, Blumenthal included a link to, and text from, a blog post titled, “Like Father, Like Son? Netanyahu's Father Says Son Not Serious About Two-State Solution.” As well, Blumenthal included a link to a now-defunct Facebook post about Netanyahu visiting his brother’s grave.
After reading the email, Clinton forwarded the email to Jake Sullivan, her deputy chief of staff. Clinton added the abbreviations “fyi” (for your information) and “ityso” (I told you so) to vocalize her agreement with Blumenthal’s “observations.”
One minute later, Clinton forwarded another “fyi” email to Sullivan. The original email, also from Blumenthal, allegedly included translated text from a May 27 issue of Maariv. The email states Netanyahu was “pleased” he managed to “defeat the US administration.”
Other Blumenthal emails to Clinton regarding the Gaza flotilla raid include Blumenthal calling for “tough love” for Israel, an article referring to Israel as a “strategic liability,” and “leaked” Frank Luntz poll numbers showing Americans believe there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.