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The former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed on Thursday that in 2013 the then Secretary of State, John Kerry, proposed him to assess the model applied by the United States in Afghanistan to implement it in Palestinian territory.
According to Netanyahu, Kerry — head of US diplomacy in Barack Obama’s second term — invited him to make “a secret visit” to the Asian country to see how the United States created “a local military force that could resist terrorism on its own.”
In turn, Kerry had suggested to him that “the Afghanistan model” was the one the United States wanted to adopt for the Palestinian issue, the former head of the Israeli government revealed today on his social networks.
However, Netanyahu “politely” declined the invitation because even then he did not believe in the American strategy: “I calculated that as soon as the United States left Afghanistan, everything would collapse.”
“This is, unfortunately, what happened these days: an extremist Islamic regime conquered Afghanistan and will turn it into a terrorist state that will endanger world peace,” denounced the former Prime Minister of Israel between 2009 and 2021, who left office this past June after twelve years in power.
According to the Israeli daily Jerusalem Post, citing sources close to Netanyahu, the former Secretary of State also suggested to the former president that he should disguise himself so as not to be recognized during the visit.
For Netanyahu, Israel would have “the same result” in Palestine as the United States in Afghanistan if more control and “the reins” of the occupied territories were given to the Palestinians.
These would create “a terrorist state in Judea and Samaria (the biblical name for the West Bank)” that would endanger Israel’s security, said Netanyahu, who defended the strategy he has promoted in recent years as the “correct” one.
“We must not rely on others to keep us safe, we must defend ourselves on our own against any threat,” he added, referring also to Iran, Israel’s main enemy.
The fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban occurred within weeks, after US and NATO forces began the final phase of withdrawal in May, handing over their military bases to the Afghans.
The Taliban movement then progressively took control of the country, culminating this week with the recovery of the capital, Kabul, proclaiming its victory and the end of the two-decade war.
