U.S. Embassy Berlin cable 09BERLIN1433, dated 12 November 2009 and later published by WikiLeaks, reports a 10 November 2009 meeting in Berlin among Chancellery official Christoph Heusgen, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Gordon, and Ambassador Philip D. Murphy.
On the Middle East, the cable records: Heusgen said Germany “perceives this differently” and thought Netanyahu needed “to do more” to bring the Palestinians to the table. With house-destruction notices in East Jerusalem, it would be “suicide” for President Abbas to move “under the current circumstances.” He “could not fathom why Netanyahu did not understand this.” He “suggested pressuring Netanyahu by linking favorable UNSC treatment of the Goldstone Report to Israel committing to a complete stop in settlement activity.” Gordon, the cable says, replied that a direct linkage “would almost certainly be counterproductive.”
Benjamin Weinthal reported the cable for National Review (2 December 2010) and the Washington Examiner (3 December 2010). Those pieces are commentary and reporting on a leaked dispatch. The cable is not a German official transcript. It is not a crime. It is the U.S. embassy’s account of what Heusgen said in a closed meeting.