Israel Palestine Infos
Uri Avnery
September 1, 2012
Master of Mischief
AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN has a restless nature. From time to time he has to do
something, anything.
As Minister of Foreign Affairs he should be doing something about, well, foreign
affairs. Trouble is,
The most important sector of our foreign affairs concerns the relationship with
the
Relations with the Palestinians are mostly (mis)managed by Ehud Barak, who, as
Minister of Defense, is formally in charge of the occupied territories. The main
actor there is the Shin Bet, which is under the authority of the Prime Minister.
The relations with the Arab world, such as they are, are maintained by the
Mossad, also under the authority of the Prime Minister. In practice, Netanyahu
and Barak together make all the decisions, including, of course, The Decision
concerning
So what’s left for Lieberman? He can deal as much as he wants with
Except that he has a personal monopoly on relations with the countries of the
Former
Most of his colleagues in
SO HOW of all possible jobs, did Netanyahu come to give him the job of foreign
minister? Well, as the leader of a party essential for the formation of the
right-wing coalition, he had a right to one of the three major ministries:
defense, finance or foreign relations. Who would dare to deny that defense is a
God-given fief of Barak? Since Netanyahu considers himself an economic genius,
he decided to keep the finance ministry in practice to himself. He found a
doctor of philosophy, who had the advantage of being innocent of any knowledge
of economics, and appointed his as his proxy minister of finance. That left only
foreign affairs, a much despised ministry, for Lieberman.
As this ministry does not provide much activity, and even less that generates
headlines, Lieberman is compelled every few months or so to do something to stir
things up. He has already insulted many of his colleagues abroad, ably assisted
by his deputy, Danny Ayalon, who boasted to journalists that he humiliated the
Turkish ambassador by putting him on a low seat.
Since at the time the Turkish army was still the closest partner of the
Israeli army in the region, Barak was livid.
Lieberman also needs something to divert attention from his famous corruption
affair. For 14 years now he has been under
investigation about receiving millions of dollars from mysterious sources
abroad. Some of the money went to straw companies abroad managed by his
daughter, who was then in her early twenties. The Attorney General still has to
decide whether to indict him – which may compel him to resign.
Now Lieberman has caused a stir again.
TWO WEEKS ago, Netanyahu and Barak were amazed to read in the newspapers that
Lieberman had sent letters to the foreign ministers of the so-called
quartet – the US, the European Union, the UN
and Russia – who oversee the non-existent “peace process”.
In this message, Lieberman demanded that the four dismiss the President of the
Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, and call immediate elections in the
The idiocy of this message is mind-boggling, even by Lieberman standards.
First of all, the quartet has absolutely no
authority to dismiss anyone in
True, Palestinian elections are long overdue. They should have taken place in
January 2010. Hamas has already announced that they would not take part, so they
would be held only in the West Bank. That would have finalized the split between
PLO and Hamas – a split no Palestinian on either side wants to aggravate.
Second, if Hamas did participate, the next Palestinian president would
conceivably be the Hamas leader Khaled Mishal, the man
Third, and most importantly, Mahmoud Abbas is by far the most peace-oriented
Palestinian leader around. And that is the crux of the matter.
LIEBERMAN BASES his bizarre demand on his contention that Abbas is the main
obstacle to peace – an assertion that few experts around the world would take
seriously. Lieberman’s real reason for his initiative may be the very opposite:
that Abbas’ stance puts
Abbas’ conditions for the start of peace negotiations are well-known:
Abbas’ terms for peace are also well-known. They were formulated long ago by
Yasser Arafat: a State of
If it wanted to, Israel could achieve peace with the Palestinians next week,
followed the week thereafter by peace with the entire Arab world, on the terms
set out in the Arab Peace Initiative, which are practically identical with the
Palestinian terms.
And that, of course, is the source of Lieberman’s hatred of Abbas. Like
Netanyahu, he doesn’t dream of giving up Greater
IN PRACTICE, the Palestinian Authority led by President Abbas is actively
cooperating with
Most Israelis believe that Palestinian violence (a.k.a. “terrorism”) has been
stopped by the “security obstacle”, the combination of walls and fences that cut
deep into the occupied Palestinian territories. However, a wall can be climbed,
tunnels can be dug underneath and militants can be smuggled through the
checkpoints. As an American politician said about the wall between the
The real reason for the total cessation of acts of violence in
By following this course, Abbas is taking huge risks. Hamas and others accuse
him of collaborating with the occupation and compare the Palestinian authority
with the Vichy regime in France, which collaborated with the Nazi occupation.
(The police of Marshal Henri Petain, a World War I hero, closely cooperated with
the Germans, inter alia helping them to round up the Jews and send them
to
Abbas has come to the conclusion that the “armed struggle” has led the
Palestinians nowhere. He hopes that the absence of violent acts will allow the
West Bank population to build up their civil society, strengthen Palestinian
institutions, raise the pitiful standard of living (far less than a tenth of the
Israeli one), and assure the Palestinian Authority of foreign aid and
legitimacy. Under the able stewardship of his prime minister, Salam Fayyad, this
is working – for the time being.
The risk is indeed great. The
Some day, the spirit of the Arab Spring may reach the
In something close to desperation, Abbas is seeking some respite by appealing to
the UN for recognition. The application for the acceptance of
The Israeli government has condemned the Palestinian application as “one-sided”.
As though the Israeli 1948 application for membership in the UN had been
“many-sided”. However, be that as it may, in face of the dire Israeli and
American threats, Abbas may have to drop this effort too, endangering his
position even more.
This week, Abbas has been invited by the Iranian regime to take part in the huge
assembly of so-called non-aligned nations in
IN THE meantime, Lieberman has already achieved his goal – a few days in the
news, and his face, with his trademark shifty eyes and sinister smile, was on
all TV screens.
Now he will drop from the news again for a few weeks or months, until he can
think up some new way to cause mischief.