This sort of ‘final solution’ language should have no place in public discourse – let alone in Israel!
The only thing harder to stomach than Lieberman’s racist invective is the deafening silence of the international community.
How can anyone take any ‘peace process’ seriously when characters like Lierberman are at the helm?
Father Dave
Avigdor Lieberman
Lieberman: Israel needs to conquer and thoroughly cleanse Gaza Strip
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s closest political ally has called for Israel to carry out a “thorough cleansing” of the Gaza Strip as a tenuous ceasefire between its Hamas rulers and the Jewish state frayed.
Speaking on Israel Radio, the far-right former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman called for Israel to reconquer the crowded coastal enclave to avoid “finding ourselves in two years with Hamas having aircraft and hundreds of missiles that will reach beyond Tel Aviv”.
His comments came as the Israeli Air Force attacked targets in the Gaza Strip after six rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel into the early hours of Monday morning. No one was injured. It was the first ceasefire breach since April.
Mr Lieberman suggested that neither the eight-day aerial campaign Israel launched in November with the stated goal of halting rockets from Gaza, nor the devastating Operation Cast Lead in 2008-09 in which more than 1,100 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died, had proven effective at quelling the violence.
“Without willingness to take things to their conclusion we merely increase the threats,” he said, adding that Hamas “has no intention of coming to terms with the Jewish presence in the land of Israel and therefore what is needed is to seriously consider conquering the Strip and carry out a thorough cleansing.” Mr Lieberman was number two on Mr Netanyahu’s electoral list during elections last January, and currently holds the post of chairman of parliament’s foreign affairs and defence committee. Mr Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on Mr Lieberman’s statements. Yair Lapid, the centrist Finance minister, said the remarks were “irresponsible”.
After the rocket fire, Israeli warplanes pounded what the military said were arms storage facilities and a rocket launch site in the Strip. There were no injuries from either the rockets or the air strikes. Israel ordered the closure of the Kerem Shalom and Erez crossings between Gaza and Israel, a step condemned as a “collective punishment” by Jaber Wishah, a spokesman for the Gaza City-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
Israeli army officials believe the rockets were fired by the Islamic Jihad group, a small militant faction currently at loggerheads with Hamas. But Israel said Hamas, which has controlled the Strip since seizing power there in 2007, bears overall responsibility.
Meanwhile, police said vandals slashed the tyres of 21 cars in the Arab Beit Hanina neighborhood of East Jerusalem in the latest of a wave of anti-Arab crimes by suspected Jewish extremists who have struck three times in and around Jerusalem in the past 10 days. Palestinian residents said the government was not doing enough to stop the vandalism. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police are treating the matter as a “high priority”.
Filed under israel and palestine conflict by on Jun 26th, 2013. Comment. 
It’s hard not to admire Lieberman for his frankness! He doesn’t mince words. He doesn’t mask a racist agenda with politically-correct expressions of tolerance and respect.
At the same time it’s hard to imagine the international repercussions should the Israeli government really try to act upon Lieberman’s suggestions. One can only imagine the scenes of mayhem, with Arabic people being rounded up throughout Israel, turfed out of their homes, arrested, deported … Surely it would be the beginning of the end for Israel.
Father Dave
source: www.israelnationalnews.com…
Lieberman: Send Anti-Israel Arabs to ‘Palestine’
By Maayana Miskin
Arab citizens of Israel should live under the Palestinian Authority, former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday. Lieberman spoke following a march against the state of Israel that was held Tuesday, Independence Day, in the Israeli ArabWadi Ara region.
“The hate march of the Israel haters, those who support and continue in the path of the Mufti of Jerusalem, who gathered today in Wadi Ara to mourn the foundation of the state of Israel, all serve as more proof that any agreement with the Palestinians needs to include Israeli Arabs,” he declared.
“An agreement without that will not be a ‘permanent agreement,’ but merely a ‘ceasefire agreement’ until the next round and the next demands,” he continued.
“The fact that they enjoy, and take advantage of, Israeli democracy and freedom of expression to mourn Israel’s creation, while at the same time keeping quiet about the murder of Palestinians in Syria, is evidence of their hypocrisy and of their true goals,” Lieberman added.
“These people need to find their place as citizens of the Palestinian Authority that they identify with and whose flag they wave, and to get their ‘national insurance’ and unemployment money from it,” he concluded.
Lieberman’s party, Yisrael Beytenu, previously ran under the controversial elections slogan, “No loyalty, no citizenship.” Lieberman and other party leaders suggested giving state benefits only to those willing to swear an oath of loyalty to the state – a proposal that was widely seen as aimed primarily at Israeli Arabs.
Filed under israel and palestine conflict by on Apr 18th, 2013. Comment.
The results of these polls surprised me. I wonder if they surprised the Israeli government?
The significance of these results is not simply that most Israelis support a two-state solution (which has always been the case) but that most of those at the extreme right do too! This certainly illustrates a growing gap between the Israeli government and its citizens – a pattern reflected in other recent polls that showed that the majority of Israeli voters simply don’t trust any of their political leaders (see here)!
A two-state solution is simply not on the agenda of Mr Netanyahu at the moment, and with his government almost certain to be returned in the upcoming election, he is not displaying any indications that he is about to change his stance. On the contrary, the growing power and influence of Lieberman and his allies suggests that his government will become increasingly hardened in its opposition to any Palestinian State.
Father Dave
Father Dave
source: www.haaretz.com…
Poll: Most right-wing Israelis would support Palestinian state, division of Jerusalem
The principles of the agreement as presented to respondents were for two states – Israel for the Jewish people and Palestine for the Palestinians, with Palestinian refugees having the right to return only to their new country.
By Barak Ravid
Two opinion surveys conducted by different Israeli pollsters in December show that most Likud-Beiteinu and the further-right Habayit Hayehudi voters would support a peace agreement establishing a demilitarized Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, Israel’s retention of major settlement blocs and a division of Jerusalem. The two polls also revealed that two thirds of all Israelis support such an agreement.
…
The principles of the agreement as presented to respondents were for two states – Israel for the Jewish people and Palestine for the Palestinians, with Palestinian refugees having the right to return only to their new country. The Palestinian state would be demilitarized and its boundaries would be based on the 1967 lines with exchanges of equal-sized territory. Those exchanges would take into consideration Israel’s security needs and would retain the large settlement blocs in Israeli hands.
Another principle presented by the pollsters was that Jewish Jerusalem would be under Israeli sovereignty and the Arab neighborhoods would be under Palestinian sovereignty. The Old City would be under neither side’s sovereignty, but rather would be administered jointly by Israel, the Palestinians and the United States. The holy places would remain under religious sovereignty as they are now.
The responses of Likud-Beiteinu and Habayit Hayehudi voters to the two surveys were surprising. The Dahaf poll showed 57 percent of the voters of these two parties as supporting such an agreement, with 25 percent opposed. Rafi Smith’s poll showed 58 percent in favor and 34 percent opposed. Among Habayit Hayehudi respondents to the Dahaf poll, 53 percent said they would support such an agreement and 43 percent said they would not.
When it came to the general public, Mina Tzemach’s poll revealed that 67 percent supported such an agreement and 21 percent opposed it, while Rafi Smith’s poll showed 68 percent in favor and 25 percent against. The surveys found that the general public’s support for the agreement rose to 75 percent (Dahaf ) and 80 percent (Rafi Smith ) when augmented by various other “improvements” such as a defense alliance with the United Sates, disarmament of Hamas and an end to its rule in Gaza, and Arab states’ willingness to enact full diplomatic relations with Israel.
read full article here: www.haaretz.com…
Filed under Israel and Palestine, israel and palestine conflict, map of israel and palestine by on Dec 31st, 2012. Comment.
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