Julian Assange praises Netanyahu – for praising Wikileaks

On December 2, 2010, Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz published an article quoting Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in full praise of Benjamin Netanyahu, “as an example of a world leader who believes the publications will aid global diplomacy.”

The statements made by Julian Assange corroborate earlier suspicions that drew attention to the peculiar position of Israel in the storm of events following the latest Wikileaks publications, emerging practically as the only country that was mentioned in the leaks but remained unharmed by the revelations.

Assange, according to Ha’aretz, told Time Magazine on December 1: “We can see the Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu coming out with a very interesting statement that leaders should speak in public like they do in private whenever they can. He believes that the result of this publication, which makes the sentiments of many privately held beliefs public, are promising a pretty good [indecipherable] will lead to some kind of increase in the peace process in the Middle East and particularly in relation to Iran.”

The article also quotes Huseyin Celik, deputy leader of Erdogan’s AKP, as hinting that the leaks were engineered by Israel. Celik is quoted as saying: “One has to look at which countries are pleased with these. Israel is very pleased. Israel has been making statements for days, even before the release of these documents. Documents were released and they immediately said, ‘Israel will not suffer from this’. How did they know that?”

While Assange continues to be hailed by the public as a whistleblower hero, who exposes the hypocrisy of under-the-table-diplomacy that is conducted by many governments of the world, voices of concern of a special relationship between the Israeli government and Wikileaks are also on the increase.

The original article on Ha’aretz can be found here.