IF there is an unacceptable public face of the Israeli Government it is Avigdor Lieberman, the Strategic Affairs Minister in the coalition Government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Greg Sheridan,
Foreign Editor
December 17, 2007
TheAustralian
What makes Lieberman controversial, and unacceptable to many, is his view that as well as territory, Israel should give away people, too, in particular its Muslim Arab citizens.
He doesn't want to expel them exactly, just redraw some borders so that some Arab towns and villages move into a new Palestinian state nextdoor, thus making Israel a more Jewish state.
The idea of excluding people on the basis of their ethnicity or religion is anathema to every liberal principle (and it is hard to imagine a single Israeli Arab willingly moving from rich Israel to poor and violent Palestine).
...For example, he regards the Annapolis peace process as almost completely meaningless, containing some dangers for Israel but offering no chance ofpeace.
"For such an agreement you need very strong leaders. Both Abu Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) and Olmert are very weak leaders," he says.
"The first stage of the road map is the Palestinians fighting terror. That means all the territories, including Gaza, not just Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). When Abu Mazen comes to negotiate he says he represents all Palestinians. When we talk to him about controlling terror he says he cannot fight Hamas in Gaza.
"Because Abu Mazen is so weak his demands are excessive. He exists only with our support. Without the Israel Defence Force he would be toppled in two weeks. He's not the right partner for Israel.
"Our relations with the Palestinians exist on three levels - the economy, security and the political process. We must start with economy and security. All Israeli people, if you ask what they're interested in, it's security.
"In all the Palestinian territories, you have 50 per cent unemployment. You can imagine what would happen in Australia if you had 50 per cent unemployment. The average Palestinian salary is $US250 per month ($290). The average Israeli salary is $US2000 per month.
"The Palestinians ... want money, better healthcare, a better education system. My proposal is that we start with economy and security and after real achievements in those areas, we can go back to the political process."
Lieberman believes the principle of Israel giving up land in return for peace, which has been its operational imperative since giving the Sinai to Egypt in the late 1970s, is no longer relevant or useful. Nor will it do anything to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the wider Israeli-Arab conflict.
"Everyone must understand this conflict is not territorial," he says.
"This land-for-peace business doesn't work. This goes back to my disagreement with (former prime minister) Ariel Sharon (over withdrawing the Jewish settlements from Gaza). You are going to establish a Palestinian state without any Jew, while we are a bi-national state with 20 per cent of our population Arabs. It won't work.
"This conflict is the result of friction between two nations: the Palestinian and the Jewish. Everywhere in the world where you have two nations, two religions, there is conflict - in the Caucasus, in Yugoslavia, in Northern Ireland."
Here is where Lieberman becomes most controversial:
"I think what we know from history is that the better situation is not land for peace but the exchange of land with people. Take Cyprus before 1974. There was terrorism and friction. From 1974, they concentrated the Greeks on one part of the island and the Turks on the other part, and since then you have peace, security and stability. The only solution is the exchange of territory and population. Israel is here, the West Bank is there, and there are some Arab towns in the middle. The solution is to move the border a little nearer to the Israeli cities. Then we don't take from them land or properties."
If that is the most controversial part of the Lieberman credo, perhaps the most convincing is his casting of the conflicts involving Israel in a much wider historical and ideological context:
"What is happening is really the worldwide clash of civilisations. It is really nothing to do with Israel. It's just bad luck where we are located. We would prefer to have neighbours like New Zealand.
"Take for example the death sentence on Salman Rushdie - I don't know of any spiritual or religious leader in the Muslim world who condemned it. Or take the Taliban destruction of the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan, or the controversy over the cartoons of Mohammed, or the reaction to the Pope's speech."
That is one reason why Lieberman believes the Annapolis peace process cannot work: so much of the opposition to Israel resides not in the question of what land it occupies, but in its very existence: "Fifteen years is long enough to test any political concept. We've had Oslo, peace conferences, Annapolis, Nobel prizes - and what has it produced? Nothing. We're in a worse situation, both us and the Palestinians, than before 1993."
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