PM Shamir need not have worried. He’s got his half million settlers, the Palestinians still haven’t got their state, and his opponents were right. He did want to “negotiate” as a way to prevent any change; so they followed his example. The Israeli government having finally run out of talk, are trying to move heaven and earth and the US government to block the Palestinian state. Mr. President, don’t you see what’s going on?

From the New York Times, June 27, 1992!

Shamir Is Said to Admit Plan To Stall Talks 'for 10 Years'

By CLYDE HABERMAN
Published: June 27, 1992

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir was quoted in a published interview today as saying he wanted to drag out peace talks with the Palestinians for a decade while vastly increasing the number of Jewish settlers in Israeli-occupied territories.

Had he held on to his office instead of being defeated this week in Israel's national election, Mr. Shamir reportedly said, "I would have conducted negotiations on autonomy for 10 years and in the meantime we would have reached half a million people" in the West Bank.

There are now about 110,000 settlers in that territory, which the Prime Minister referred to by the biblical names of Judea and Samaria. 'Demographic Revolution'

A spokesman denied tonight that Mr. Shamir had been accurately quoted in the interview, which appeared in Maariv, a leading independent newspaper in Israel. Although the spokesman, Ehud Gol, acknowledged that he had not checked with the Prime Minister and that he had not been present when the telephone conversation with Maariv took place, he said, "It definitely was nothing of that nature."

"He never would have said something like that because that is not what he thinks about autonomy," Mr. Gol said. "He would have liked an agreement as quickly as possible."

According to Maariv, Mr. Shamir said in a post-election conversation, "It's very painful to me that in the next four years I will not be able to increase settlement in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, and complete the demographic revolution."

"I know the others will now try to act against this," he was quoted as saying. "Without this demographic revolution, there is no reason to hold autonomy talks as there now is a risk of a Palestinian state."

The published quotations seemed likely to confirm his opponents' suspicions that the Prime Minister sought from the start to prolong the peace talks as long as possible.