THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VIII, Issue # 249, December 20, 2006
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
MY VISION FOR ISRAEL -- A BRIEFING BY AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN:
Israel' Lieberman Calls for Tougher Stance on Israeli Arabs
By Ira Stoll
THE STATE OF ISRAEL, ISRAELI ARABS, & THE THREAT OF INTERNAL SUBVERSION & TREASON: LINKAGE &
COLLABORATION BETWEEN PALESTINIAN ARABS & ISRAELI ARABS --WHAT MUST BE DONE TO ENSURE THE ISRAELI
ARABS' LOYALTY TO THE STATE OF ISRAEL -- THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT AS AN IMPORTANT DIMENSION OF
THE GLOBAL WAR BETWEEN WESTERN CIVILIZATION & THE FORCES OF MILITANT ISLAM -- ISRAEL'S MAIN PROBLEM IN
ADOPTING & IMPLEMENTING A CONSISTENT STRATEGIC DEFENSE POLICY IN THE FOURTH WORLD WAR: DEFECTS
IN THE ISRAELI POLITICAL SYSTEM
FULL STORY:
The Deputy Prime Minister of Israel, Avigdor Lieberman, is calling for a tougher stance toward Israeli Arabs.
Mr. Lieberman outlined his views at a luncheon session in New York on December 12, 2006 -- organized by the Middle
East Forum -- and afterward in an interview with the New York Sun and other journalists.
"The conflict includes not only the Arabs in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, but Israeli Arabs also," Mr. Lieberman
said.
"The linkage between the Palestinian Authority and the
Israeli Arab population will destroy us. It is an impossible
situation. What is the logic of creating one and a half
country for one people and a half country for the Jewish
people?"
Mr. Lieberman spoke of requiring Israelis to sign a commitment to loyalty to the Israeli flag and to its national anthem,
and of requiring service in the Army or alternative national service. Citizens who refuse to sign the declaration, he said,
could continue as permanent residents of Israel, working, studying and receiving health care benefits, but they could
not vote in national elections or be elected to national office.
"It's not racism," Mr. Lieberman said. "The test is loyalty, not their religion." He said he would also deny Israeli
citizenship to extreme anti-Zionist Orthodox Jewish groups, such as the Neturei Karta, which sent representatives to
the December 11, 2006, Holocaust denial conference in Tehran.
Mr. Lieberman said the "close linkage" between Israeli Arabs and the Arabs of the Palestinian Authority is a result of
Israeli "weakness."
"If we will be stronger and tougher, the Israeli Arabs will be more loyal," he said. "They are really afraid about their
future."
He defended his statement that Israeli Arab parliamentarians who went to Damascus and met with Hamas should be
shot, and he said Americans would understand that position. He asked whether one could imagine an American
congressman or senator going to Tora Bora during the war in Afghanistan and meeting with Osama bin Laden, then
returning to a seat in Congress.
Still, Mr. Lieberman said, Israel's main problem is not Israeli Arabs, "it's Israeli Jews." He noted that the country has had
10 Foreign Ministers and seven Defense Ministers in the past 11 years as fragile political coalitions have collapsed and
elections have been called. "It's impossible to establish any policy under these conditions," he said.
On the Iranian threat, Mr. Lieberman said Iran's nuclear ambitions are "the biggest threat" to Jewry since World War II.
"Ahmadinejad is not a rational player," he said of the Iranian President. "Any attempt to pacify him is like before the
Second World War in Europe."
On the Palestinian front, Mr. Lieberman said the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs is not about territory
or settlements or "occupation," but about values. It is a conflict between the West and the radical Islamic world.
He had harsh words for the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Mahmoud Abbas, the longtime aide to
Yasser Arafat who is also known as Abu Mazen. The Bush administration has depicted Mr. Abbas as a partner for
peace with the Israelis and as more moderate and secular than his political rivals, the Islamist terrorist group Hamas.
Mr. Lieberman said:
"I don't think that Abu Mazen is the right partner. I think that
he is the biggest obstacle. Abu Mazen, he is excellent for
declaration, but, when he must deliver the goods, he is
incompetent."
As an alternative, Mr. Lieberman suggested that Israel work with the "new generation" of Palestinian Arabs who were
educated in America and in Europe. He also said Israel should coordinate any agreements it makes concerning the
West Bank with Jordan, and agreements concerning the Gaza Strip with Egypt.
Mr. Lieberman said Israeli concessions have been interpreted as gestures of weakness, not of good will.
He sketched the framework of a possible agreement with Syria, saying that, before any such accord was reached,
Damascus would have to close down the headquarters of any terrorist organizations based there. "We can lease the
Golan Heights for 99 years," he said.
Polls show that Mr. Lieberman, who also serves as Minister of Strategic Affairs, is the second-most popular politician
in Israel. An immigrant from Moldova, he served in previous governments as Minister of National Infrastructure and
Minister of Transportation. His Israel Beiteinu Party controls 11 seats in Israel's 120-member Parliament. Though he
started out as an Israeli labor leader, he has backed efforts to privatize Israeli state assets, such as the national airline
and the radio and television broadcasting authority.
He said the reception he has received has changed. "When I spoke even two, three years ago, everyone said, ‘You
are radical, you are crazy,'" he said. Now, he says, people complain he isn't going far enough. One measure of the
increasing seriousness with which Mr. Lieberman is being considered is that, on his visit to America, a Lieberman
with a more moderate reputation, the newly re-elected U.S. Senator from Connecticut, made time for a meeting with him.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Israel -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Avigdor Lieberman is the recently appointed Minister of Strategic Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister of Israel. As the
leader of Yisrael Beytenu, the political party he founded, his faction holds 11 seats, making it the fifth largest in the
Israeli Parliament, with almost 10 percent of the total seats. Polls show that he is the second most popular Israeli
politician, after Benjamin Netanyahu, with current Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ranking fifth. Minister Lieberman
addressed the Middle East Forum on December 12, 2006. The foregoing article is an account of his briefing, as
reported by Ira Stoll in the New York Sun.
Ira Stoll is Vice President and Managing Editor of the New York Sun and the Founder and Editor in Chief of
SmarterTimes.Com. In the past, Stoll served as Managing Editor, as well as Washington, D.C., correspondent,
of the Forward, a Jewish-American newspaper published in New York, N.Y. Also, he has served as North
American Editor of the Jerusalem Post. When a student at Harvard University, he was President of the
Crimson, the daily student newspaper.
The foregoing article by Ira Stoll was originally published in the New York Sun, December 13, 2006, and can be
found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum.
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
December 20, 2006
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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