Anger at Israeli foreign minster Lieberman

[pieter]

French, Spanish FMs: Lieberman violated every rule of diplomacy

European foreign ministers furious with Israeli counterpart, who told them to 'solve their own problems before they complain to Israel.'

By Barak Ravid

The foreign ministers of Spain and France were furious with their Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman, telling him Monday morning during a phone conversation that he had "violated every rule of diplomatic etiquette," an Israeli source reported on Monday.


Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman shaking hands with French and Spanish counterparts Bernard Kouchner and Miguel Angel Moratinos in Jerusalem on October 10, 2010. Photo by: Reuters

During a dinner meeting on Sunday, Lieberman told France's Bernard Kouchner and Spain's Miguel Angel Moratinos to "solve your own problems in Europe before you come to us with complaints. Maybe then I will be open to accepting your suggestions."

Lieberman emphasized to that "Israel will not be the Czechoslovakia of 2010," at their meeting at the foreign ministry offices in Jerusalem.

During the telephone conversation between the three FMs Monday, the European ministers voiced their extreme dismay with the fact that details of the meeting were made public an hour after it took place. "You violated our trust," they said to Lieberman.

Moratinos said that Lieberman had apologized for what had happened during the meeting, but Foreign Ministry officials denied this report, saying that Lieberman did not apologize but rather clarified that he did not intend for his remarks to be presented in the media as a reprimand of Kouchner and Moratinos.

The French and Spanish foreign ministers said that they were very surprised by Lieberman's remarks during Sunday's meeting, especially in light of the fact that, according to them, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had made remarks contradicting Lieberman's tone mere hours before the meeting.

While Netanyahu told the European statesmen that he aims to achieve a peace agreement with the Palestinians within a year, Lieberman stressed to them that "anyone who talks like that is naïve." The men emphasized to Lieberman during their dinner that they completely disagreed with his assertion that a peace deal could not be achieved.

They explained to Lieberman that if a Palestinian state is not established within the next year or two, it would undermine Israel's security, urging Lieberman to take advantage of the current Palestinian leadership, as no one knows what the alternative will be in the future.

Meanwhile Monday, Lieberman denied the reports that the dinner was unpleasant, and said despite the fact that it was at times complicated, the dinner was "very tasty, and there was a good, honest and open atmosphere. We spoke openly, as friends do."

Lieberman added that he indeed spoke with Moratinos on the phone and described the conversation as "good." He stressed that he did not reprimand anyone, and said that "we need to stop squirming and stuttering. In Europe they passed the Burka ban law [France] and a Minaret ban [Switzerland] and no one got excited about it."

"In the reality of the Middle East, only the strong survive," he added.

[pieter]

West of the 'Auschwitz borders'

Lieberman's 'plan' for a population exchange has nothing to do with the desire to transform Israel into a more Jewish state; instead, its main contribution is to make the Arab minority in Israel more Palestinian.

By Akiva Eldar

Not long ago, during a meeting with foreign reporters, Avigdor Lieberman quoted a statement attributed to Abba Eban describing the 1967 borders as "Auschwitz borders." Immediately afterward, the foreign minister presented the "plan" to move territories west of those "Auschwitz borders" so they would be under the jurisdiction of a foreign element (namely, the Palestinians ) which, he claimed, seeks to throw the Jews into the sea. In order to be rid of the Arab population in Israel in return for annexing the "settlement blocs," Lieberman proposes contracting Israel's narrow waist even further.


Abba Eban (Hebrew: אבא אבן‎, born Aubrey Solomon Meir Eban 2 February 1915 - 17 November 2002) was an Israeli diplomat and politician.

In Lieberman's "best case scenario," in which Israel will surrender the Wadi Ara highway (and, incidentally, also have to relocate three Jewish communities ), shifting the "Auschwitz borders" toward the sea, not even 11 percent of the population of Arab Israelis will be "diminished." Their living space accounts for less than two percent of the territory of the West Bank, a little less than the "blocs" that Lieberman and his fellow settlers are eager to obtain.

It is hard to imagine that a patriot like Lieberman does not know the map of the beloved homeland and does not know that exchanging populated areas as a solution to the conflict is baseless. Even from his point of view, which is far from being moral or democratic, his "plan" has nothing to do with the desire to transform Israel into a more Jewish state. Its main contribution, like that of the amendment to the citizenship law, is to make the Arab minority in Israel more Palestinian.

When a child from Baka al-Garbiyeh, who attends a Jewish-Arab school in Kafr Kara, listens to the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister deliver a speech at the United Nations on the transfer of Arab Israelis, he realizes that the country in which he was born does not want him. When a student from Kafr Qasem, who studies at Ariel College, reads about the prime minister's demand that the Palestinians declare morning, noon and night that Israel is the state of the Jewish people, she understands this is not her country.

The research conducted by University of Haifa sociology professor Sami Samocha suggests a trend which the Israel Prize laureate describes as the "Israelization" of Israeli Arabs. His findings indicate that they are undergoing a process of adjusting to the state and are focused on acquiring a status equal to that of Jews.

In the last survey he conducted, three years ago, 79 percent of respondents said they agree with the idea that Arab Israelis need to live in Israel as a minority with full rights. However, the rate of those rejecting the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish-Zionist state - which dropped from 62 percent in 1985 to 35 percent in 1995 (the days of the Rabin government ) - climbed to 64 percent in 2007.

The Or Commission that investigated the October 2000 clashes wrote that "it is appropriate to find methods to bolster Arab citizens' sense of belonging to the state, without undermining their connection to their culture and community." In order to block the irredentist sentiment which Lieberman is so fearful of, the commission recommended exploring means of expressing the common denominators of the entire population, by incorporating public events and symbols which Arab citizens could identify with as well. At the same time, the government misses no opportunity to pass legislation and issue statements that make the chances of creating such common denominators slim.

The attitude of the right toward Arab Israelis resembles that of the guy who murders his parents and then asks for mercy because he is an orphan. Last week Lieberman told Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb that because of the Palestinians' refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, that before a peace agreement is achieved (which he does not believe will happen in this generation anyway ), they may take action to "create various autonomies inside Israel."


Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb

Lieberman and his boss actively contribute to the manifesting of this prophecy through excluding Arab citizens of Israel from their country. First they push the Arab minority into the bosom of the Arab leaders, who cultivate the Palestinian and Muslim identity, and then they complain about extremism among them.

It is doubtful whether this government will move closer to peace with the Arabs over the fence. For the time being, it is displaying its power in its confrontations with the Arabs within. "Our enemies have made us one without our consent," wrote Theodor Herzl in "The Jewish State" more than 110 years ago, adding that "Distress binds us together, and, thus united, we suddenly discover our strength." It is interesting to know how that sounds in Arabic.


Theodor Herzl

[pieter]

Der Judenstaat ("The State of the Jews")



Der Judenstaat (German, "The State of the Jews") is a book written by Theodor Herzl and published in 1896 in Leipzig and Vienna by M. Breitenstein's Verlags-Buchhandlung. It is subtitled with "Versuch einer modernen Lösung der Judenfrage", "Proposal of a modern solution for the Jewish question", and originally called "Address to the Rothschilds" referring to the Rothschild family banking dynasty.

It is considered one of the most important texts of early Zionism. As expressed in this book, Herzl envisioned the founding of a future independent Jewish state during the 20th century. He argued that the best way to avoid anti-Semitism in Europe was to create this independent Jewish state. Herzl, who had lived as a secular, largely assimilated Jew, was fluent in neither Hebrew nor Yiddish. His lack of contact with Jewish culture and intellectual currents, and his limited contact with Jews less assimilated than he prior to hitting upon the idea of a Jewish return to Zion, led him to imagine that popular Jewish support for a Jewish State elsewhere than in Palestine was conceivable. In Der Judenstaat, Herzl noted the possibility of a Jewish state in Argentina.

Herzl popularized the term "Zionism", which was coined by Nathan Birnbaum. The nationalist movement culminated in the birth of the State of Israel in 1948, though Zionism continues to be connected with political support of the State of Israel.


Nathan Birnbaum (16 May 1864 – 2 April 1937) was an Austrian writer and journalist, Jewish thinker.

Main argument

The main argument of the book is as follows. After centuries of various restrictions, hostilities, and occasional pogroms, the Jews of Europe have been reduced to living in Ghettos. The higher class is forced to deal with angry mobs and, so experiences a great deal of discomfort; the lower class lives in despair. Middle-class professionals are distrusted, and the statement "don't buy from Jews" causes much anxiety among Jewish people. It is reasonable to assume that the Jews will not be left in peace. Neither a change in the feelings of non-Jews nor a movement to merge into the surrounds of Europe offers much hope to the Jewish people. Jews "introduce" anti-Semitism wherever they go:

"The Jewish question persists wherever Jews live in appreciable numbers. Wherever it does not exist, it is brought in together with Jewish immigrants. We are naturally drawn into those places where we are not persecuted, and our appearance there gives rise to persecution. This is the case, and will inevitably be so, everywhere, even in highly civilised countries - see, for instance, France - so long as the Jewish question is not solved on the political level. The unfortunate Jews are now carrying the seeds of anti-Semitism into England; they have already introduced it into America."

The creation of a Jewish State may be a possible solution to the problem faced by Europe's Jews.

Herzl opposed the efforts already made by Zionist groups to settle Jews in Ottoman-controlled Palestine, arguing that "important experiments in colonization have been made, though on the mistaken principle of a gradual infiltration of Jews. An infiltration is bound to end badly. It continues till the inevitable moment when the native population feels itself threatened, and forces the government to stop a further influx of Jews. Immigration is consequently futile unless we have the sovereign right to continue such immigration.” (Quoted from The Jewish State, translated by Sylvie d’Avigdor, Nutt, London, 1896, and reprinted by Dover, 1988, p. 95.)

For this reason, Herzl, both in Der Judenstaat, and in his political activity on behalf of Zionism, concentrated his efforts on securing official legal sanction from the Ottoman authorities.

Links:
Polish: pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Herzl
www.jewish.org.pl/index.php?Itemid=66&id=85&option=com_content&task=view
German: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Judenstaat
Russian: ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%95%D0%B2%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B9%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B5_%D0%B3%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%83%D0%B4%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%BE_%28%D0%BA%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%B0%29

[Jaga]

Pieter,

I have heard that Lieberman cannot go to visit some countries since he is worried that they would imprison him because of the way he acts and that Israel killed so many innocent civilians during the last couple of years.

[pieter]

Oct 18, 2010 15:27:23 GMT -7 Jaga said:

Pieter,

I have heard that Lieberman cannot go to visit some countries since he is worried that they would imprison him because of the way he acts and that Israel killed so many innocent civilians during the last couple of years.

Jaga,

I think you are right. He certainly will know where he can go and where he can't go.
Lieberman as foreign minister is like making Geert Wilders the Dutch minister of foreign affairs. The Israeli's knew that with such an extremist on foreign affairs they would have a situation like this. It is also disastrous for the Peace process.

Pieter