Bribes charged at crossing for goods to Gaza

A June 2006 diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks last Thursday by the Aftenposten daily newspaper in Norway said that American companies told U.S. officials that large bribes were demanded in order to get goods into the blockaded Gaza Strip at an important cargo crossing.

One distributor of Coca-Cola said he was asked to pay more than $3,000 in order to get merchandise through the Karni crossing and also said that a “high-level official” from Israel was responsible for the corruption ring.

Other companies including Westinghouse, Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, Caterpillar, and others complained of corruption as well. The executive was later identified as West Bank Coca-Cola distributor Joerg Hartman.

Iran has missiles that can reach Israel in 12 minutes

According to another recently released Wikileaks cable, Iran currently has missiles that can reach Israel in 12 minutes.

The information came through a conversation between Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and a U.S. congressional delegation in November 2009.

Iran reportedly has more than 300 missiles capable of reaching Israel in 12 minutes.

The meeting was the same one in which he revealed plans for a major war against Lebanon and Palestine, and that Hizbullah in southern Lebanon had 40,000 rockets capable of hitting Tel Aviv.

Israel told U.S. Officials it would keep Gaza economy “on the brink of collapse”

According to another cable, Israel told officials from the U.S in 2008 that it would plan to keep Gaza’s economy “on the brink of collapse” while avoiding a humanitarian crisis. The plan was constructed following the election of Hamas according to the cable.

A total of three cables cited by Aftenposten said that Israel wanted to keep Gaza “functioning at the lowest level possible consistent with avoiding a humanitarian crisis.”

Several aid organizations and politicians have criticized the blockade and called Gaza a “prison camp” based on current conditions.

Israel said to have overestimated Iranian nuclear program

Additional Wikileaks documents have stated that White House and State Department officials said Israel overestimated the nuclear program of Iran, adding that evaluations of the situation should be taken “with a grain of salt.”

According to reports, other U.S. officials stated concern over assessments put forth by the Israelis that said Iran was moving closer to being able to create nuclear weapons. The officials recalled that back in 1993, Israel also claimed that Iran would have a nuclear bomb within five years at the latest.

One additional United States diplomat said that it wasn’t known for sure whether Israeli officials believed their own estimates or if they were simply using worst-case scenarios in order to create a sense of urgency from the United States.