AMY TEIBEL
Associated Press= JERUSALEM (AP) — A confidential diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supports the notion of land swaps with the Palestinians.
But an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to disclose the contents of a confidential conversation, said Netanyahu did not discuss land swaps.
Netanyahu has been very careful to keep his positions on borders very close to the vest.
The Feb. 26, 2009 cable, dated two weeks after the Israeli leader was elected, says "Netanyahu expressed support for the concept of land swaps, and emphasized that he did not want to govern the West Bank and Gaza but rather to stop attacks from being launched from there."
This sentence was contained in the cable summary but is not amplified in the section of the report that refers to peacemaking with the Palestinians.
"The prime minister never raised the issue of land swaps and the telegram does not quote him as saying so," the official who spoke on condition of anonymity said. "The elaborated part of the conversation shows that that in fact is the case."
U.S. Embassy spokesman Kurt Hoyer would not comment on the cable. He said the diplomat who signed off on it, Luis G. Moreno, had left Israel and could not immediately be reached
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