I've been very interested lately in how Avigdor Lieberman's success in the recent Israeli elections is changing how Americans view and understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Richard Cohen's column in today's Washington Post is another sign Lieberman is helping people cut to the chase. In his article "Whose Israel Shall It Be?" Cohen compares Lieberman to Israel's founders in light of his proposal to force Palestinian citizens out of the country:
[Israel's first President Chaim] Weizmann was no dreamer. His century — the 20th — was fast becoming the bloodiest in history. The world was just completing an orgy of genocide, ethnic cleansing and population transfers — Greeks for Turks and Turks for Greeks, Germans for Poles and Poles for Germans, a decades-long brawl culminating in the Holocaust and followed by the expulsion of millions of ethnic Germans from all over Eastern Europe. Pakistan and India were created in a similar manner — a population swap of many millions of people. This was the way things were once done.
Israel, too, engaged some in ethnic cleansing — or why else all those Palestinian refugees? But the attempt was both chaotic and, as we can see, not wholly successful. More important, the concept was anathema to important members of the Zionist establishment such as Weizmann. The way of the world — eliminating ethnic minorities — would not be practiced by the very ethnic minority that had suffered the most.
Well, if that's not a conversation starter I don't know what is. The Palestinian refugee problem is the result of Israeli ethnic cleansing. While Cohen's assertion that "important members" of the Zionist establishment didn't support ethnic cleansing is debatable, it's a debate well worth having and Lieberman has made it possible.
Cohen believes Lieberman's proposal is not consistent with Israeli values, which he implies are consistent with US values. The more Lieberman, and Danny Ayalon, talk, the more questions will be raised. Writers like Cohen should feel empowered to speak more truths about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but they should also be forced to reevaluate assumptions that are no longer valid.
