Foreign minister says no cohesion in cabinet, each minister going in his or her own direction.
“The economy minister spoke of annexing settlement blocks and the finance minister threatened to disband the coalition if such a plan is approved. They both know they are talking about something that will never happen.”
Why does Lieberman say it will never happen. Is this the reality? Ted Belman
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman criticized Monday the lack of coherence in the government’s proposed policies on the Palestinians, attacking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not leading his cabinet and demanding that he formulate a plan that would represent the entire coalition.
“What happened yesterday, when four senior ministers gave public addresses one after the other with each proposing a different political solution, was a grotesque performance,” said Lieberman at an Institute of Certified Public Accountants conference in Eilat.
Lieberman added that “one minister spoke of annexation, another minister spoke of deliberation, a woman minister spoke of segmentation, and the last spoke of stagnation. That is not a government policy. We need to cut down and adopt a single political plan to bind all parts of the coalition.”
The Yisrael Beiteinu chairman called on Netanyahu to lead in formulating such a plan. “We need to do this as soon as possible, because if we do not do it of our volition we will be dragged towards what we do not want and what is not in our best interest.”
Lieberman addressed the emerging conflict between Economy Minister Naftali Bennett and Finance Minister Yair Lapid. “The economy minister spoke of annexing settlement blocks and the finance minister threatened to disband the coalition if such a plan is approved. They both know they are talking about something that will never happen.”
The foreign minister emphasized that he supported the idea of annexation but that “it was not feasible. Even Minister Bennett knows that, but he thinks it is worth saying to maybe get two more seats (in the Knesset).”
He also criticized Hatnuah Chairwoman Tzipi Livni’s remarks: “The justice minister speaks of continuing the Oslo Process, 21 years after it was started and failed. It reminds me of Hegel’s observation that ‘governments have never learned anything from history.'”
Lieberman also addressed Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s remarks at the Herzliya Conference: “The interior minister spoke of continuing the status quo and it simply does not work. It’s like in soccer, if you do not initiate and are always defending, you eventually concede a goal.”
The foreign minister stressed that he supported a negotiated agreement with the Palestinians, “but only as part of a package which also solves our relations with the Arab world and the issue of Israeli Arabs. It must be part of a package deal.”
Lieberman added: “In the Middle East everyone is afraid of everyone and we need to bring everyone to the negotiations table in one fell swoop and solve everything simultaneously. The situation today is not what it was more than 10 years ago when they first proposed the Arab Peace Initiative. It is no longer quiet in the Arab world.”
Unfortunately Mr. Lieberman is correct. Every member of the Knesset has his or her own personal solution to every problem. That includes Avigdor Lieberman.
How would he suggest curing this serious flaw in Israel’s democratic parliament, the straying from party lines ?
Fine offenders? Gag offenders? Deny entry to the Knesset of offenders? Expel offenders? Publish the names and offenses in the daily news media of offenders? Gag offenders? Elect a sergeant=at=arms with real power? Gag offender?
Pleas, Mr. Lieberman, a real, practical, workable solution is desperately needed.
All governments of the Jewish State of Israel have the perpetual and permanent duty to reclaim all parts of Eretz=Yisrael on behalf of the worldwide Jewish nation whose interests they sometimes actually but most often purportedly represent.
In the overall interests of the Jewish nation, that duty must be carried out, by peaceful means if possible, or by force if peace is not possible.
I judge that one of the strong points of the of the Arab national culture, and the Islamic religion that was born from that culture, is their generally total unwillingness to compromise over issues of peace and war. They will never make peace with non-Islamic civilizations nor even with one another. In that at least, they are true warriors and should be regarded and dealt with as such. even if no other Jew can recognize what to me is an obvious truth as fixed as the laws of gravity that maintain the orbits of planets orbiting their respective stars.
If I am right in the above-stated assumptions, then the government of the Jewish state can never and shall never be able to achieve permanent peace with this neighboring Arab culture and its subset of tribes, hamulas, military dictatorships and other entities, most of which frequently war against one another.
Therefore, all legitimate governments of Israel mus respond to that Arab and Islamic reality by expending the borders of Israel; and within those expanded borders, Israel must grow an expanded population whose mass will increase the power of both the Jewish nation and the Jewish state. Because in the world as created and as currently arranged, there is no substitute for national power, either or both to defend against attacks from enemies, or to destroy such enemies when and if their threats become too threatening.
Nor do I regard the Jewish national policies that I espouse as mere war-mongering. At least in consideration of the unique existential threats that perpetually target individual Jews, their communities, or the existence of the Jewish nation. In the 80 years of my life, I have learned the fundamental lesson that the Jewish nation can trust no non-Jews whatsoever, and that only very special kinds of Jews are suitable for marshaling and leading the defense of the Jewish nation.
Shomron and Yehuda must be annexed and re-Judaized, and these steps must be taken as immediately as possible. I could not care less what the none-Jewish world thinks or says about all or any of this. Those lands are the property of the Jewish nation. They must be redeemed. And this must take place now.
Any government in Israel that impedes or delays the process of Jewish national redemption of Israel’s heartlands deserves any treatment other than removal from office, hopefully by peaceful means. But by any means if it comes to that. Because I know traitors and weaklings when I see them, and I assume all of you reading these comments likewise can see them the same as I do.
If democracy stands in the way of Jewish national redemption, then I say to hell with democracy. In any case, all of you acquainted with life in the contemporary USA can clearly see the vast national decay here progressing as rapidly as it does because of liberal democracy. Don’t let that happen to the Jewish state.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI