YNET is reporting that past Israeli foreign ministers do not think that incoming Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman will hurt Israel's international relations. They say relations are not based on Lieberman, but the government he is representing. Good point. Dovish former Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami is quoted as saying, "We will not reach a point of being ostracized. Anyone who hasn't boycotted Hamas, Hizbullah and the Taliban, will not boycott Lieberman." Okay, maybe that's not the best example, as the US, EU, and Quartet are all boycotting Hamas and supported wars against Hizbullah and the Taliban. But the broader point seems reasonable enough.
Unfortunately, for the incoming Netanyahu administration, their problems don't end with Lieberman. Just yesterday it came to light that incoming national security adviser, Uzi Arad, has been barred from entering the US for the past two years because of the AIPAC espionage case. Today, Paul Woodward has a great post on Arad and the views he will be providing to Netanyahu. Woodward has dug up this interview that Arad did the the Israeli settler news service Arutz Sheva where he gave his thoughts on the two-state solution:
I don’t think that one has to go that far because at the end of the day, I don’t think the majority of Israelis want to see themselves responsible for the Palestinians. We do not want to control the Palestinian population. It’s unnecessary. What we do want is to care for our borders, for the Jewish settlements and for areas which are unpopulated and to have our security interests served well. But also to take under our responsibility these populations which, believe me, are not the most productive on earth, would become a burden. We want to relieve ourselves of the burden of the Palestinian populations – not territories. It is territory we want to preserve, but populations we want to rid ourselves of.
Emphasis mine. Arad is articulating a widespread Israeli strategic objective of controlling as much land as possible while maintaining a Jewish majority. Of course, it's also a call for ethnic cleansing. Afif Safieh, the former PLO representative to Washington, used to say that Israel wants the geography without the demography.
In the end, I agree with the past foreign ministers. Lieberman is not the issue, it is the government that he will be representing. And that should be reason enough for the US to reevaluate its relationship with Israel.
Slightly O/T: Cindy and Craig Corrie on Gaza, Tristan Anderson and their daughter – March 16, 2009.
Very moving and well written too…
those kind of ethnic cleansing comments are the natural extension of the colonial project society. the scary thing is how they share a secular-dogmatic cultural psychosis, trapped perrenially in tribal struggles of scripture, without the enlightenment of spirituality and universalism.
"It is territory we want to preserve, but populations we want to rid ourselves of." Despicable.
Thanks, Gert, for the Corries' heart-felt essay and sensible calls for action from the Obama Administration. Along those lines, see:
link to counterpunch.org
Israel inflicts "a chemical waste dump and a massive electricity generating station" near ancestral Bedouin villages, then "refuses to connect them to the grid."
As a result, "the lack of an electricity supply in particular posed a severe threat to the Bedouin community’s health. A fifth of all residents of unrecognised villages suffer from chronic illness, particularly asthma and diabetes, and require a reliable electrical supply to their homes for their treatment. Most must travel long distances, usually over dirt tracks, to reach health clinics and hospitals.
Meanwhile, "The Physicians for Human Rights report notes that the enforcement of planning laws in the case of Bedouin villages, most of which pre-date Israel’s creation in 1948, contrasts strongly with the treatment of the many Jewish communities that have been established illegally under Israeli law.
Dozens of individual ranches in the Negev and at least 100 of what are called settlement “outposts” in the West Bank have been set up without permits from the Israeli authorities but nonetheless have been connected to services by the national utility firms."
How much injustice are we U.S. citizens willing to pay for?
I'll read that Suzie, thanks!
Of course, not that long ago, someone wanted to 'relieve [them]selves of the burden of the Jewish populations – not territories' too, but stop right there! That's NOT the SAME THING AT ALL: the Zionists are Chosen and Nazis were doomed.
Uzi is the kind of racist who'll dispute this allegation on the basis that: 'but it's TRUE, they [whoever] are NOT the most productive on earth!' Strangely enough, people like Uzi remain a strong anti-dote to anti-Semitism because their very existence proves that super-hawkish Zionists are human beings like a everyone else: flawed and capable of anything. The Nazis were human too.
If this guy is going to be one of the faces of the 'Judeo-Christian' alliance, I think I'm gonna be sick!
Uzi is also a super-hawk on Iran (which is what landed him into a spot of espionage bother, indirectly) and would gladly push the Jericho buttons on Iran. Israel uber Alles really does spring to mind here…
The best thing about Avigdor Lieberman is that he named his party "Israel is our home". By this very name he shows that psychologically the Zios are running so scared that they doth protest way, way too much.
They are thus trying frantically to convince themselves and the world that they didn't really carry out 60+ years of ethnic cleansing, theft and genocide and yeah, Israel is their home.
But also to take under our responsibility these populations which, believe me, are not the most productive on earth, would become a burden.
Yes, the measure of a human being is the ability to be "productive".
Maybe if Israel lets in a couple of wheelbarrows of cement, some morsels of food and a bit of toilet paper, the Palestinians will become sufficiently "productive" enough for Arad. But I doubt it.
UZI ARAD'S WORDS: "…these populations which, believe me, are not the most productive on earth, would become a burden…"
ME: This sounds like the racists in this country who bitch about the 'burden' caused by the undocumented Latinos: "those lazy, shiftless, dim-witted wetbacks".
How much injustice are we U.S. citizens willing to pay for?
I don't know, Susie. I don't know.
Thank you for the link to the Counterpunch article, and thank you Gert for your link.
I would assume at least 500 billion dollars per year. What is the total cost of the criminal justice system in America including jail and parole?
Something is rotten in Denmark.
The incoming national security adviser for the latest configuration of the Israeli regime has a problem with the USA due to his link to the creepy and unheralded AIPAC spy case, and the frontrunner for our IT security summary
job was just swift-boated away by one of the two key defendants in the very same case.
I guess normal Americans are not suppose to notice this.
Well,
Lucky Polish people!! Germans obliged by getting rid of Jews (25% of the population) and leaving geography intact, and then communists finished the job in 1968 by driving some remaining "unproductives" out of jobs and homes and into Israel.
By current Israeli government standard Poles achieved admirable outcomes: they kept territory, got rid of undesirables and delivered Poland from it's Jewish burden.
If only Poles had their own Avigdor Lieberman in Poland say 200 years ago! So much more territory could have been had by pure-blood Poles so much sooner. Numerically "Burden" was smaller, and record keeping less stringent…………… .
Irony alert! Satire alert! Only it's not remotely funny if the shoe is on the other foot – is it?
Great Eva, thanks :)