Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Photo: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Photo: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)This just in from Haaretz: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman are set to announce “the unification of their Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu parties, a Channel 2 report indicated on Thursday.”
The move, due to be announced in a press conference in Jerusalem’s Dan Panorama Hotel, may be an attempt to overpower a possible unification between centrist and left-wing parties.
Last week, a Haaretz poll indicated that a new centrist party formed by Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni and Yair Lapid would win more seats in the next Knesset than the Likud.
Were such a party to be formed, it would grab 25 seats, compared to Likud’s 24. However, the survey also indicates that, whatever its composition, a right-wing bloc would not lose its Knesset majority.
What’s it mean? Noam Sheizaf, the sharp Israeli journalist from +972 Magazine, writes on Twitter: “Strange sign of panic in the Right: Likud is merging w/ Israel Beitenu; Bibi officially endorses Lieberman politics (as if we didn’t know).”
Indeed. Some Western powers act like they “don’t know” that Lieberman and Netanyahu are similar ideologically, at least when it comes to the Palestine question. Western nations have in the past distanced themselves from Lieberman over his brash right-wing views.
This move should puncture the notion that Lieberman’s ethnocentric, right-wing politics that push for the “transfer” of Palestinian citizens of Israel is somehow an outlier in Israeli politics. Lieberman’s party is about to be fused with Israel’s most powerful political force.
Another step toward an open fascist coup in Israel. What will Lieberman demand from Netanyahu as a condition of helping to keep him in power in the short term? Surely to open the path to power for Lieberman himself in the slightly longer term.
“This move should puncture the notion that Lieberman’s ethnocentric, right-wing politics that push for the “transfer” of Palestinian citizens of Israel is somehow an outlier in Israeli politics.”
I think you have it backwards. I think it punctures the notion that transfer is taken seriously by anyone, and it punctures the notion of Lieberman as a radical ideologue. Netanyahu will moderate Lieberman, not the other way around. I think you have an interest in arguing that Lieberman and Netanyahu are similar ideologically, but it’s simply not the case. Lieberman has essentially been marginalized as FM by Netanyahu, and this will continue. This is triumph of visionless electoral politics, not a triumph of ideology.
If I correctly connect the dots – just as their is no daylight between Sheldon Adelson, Romney and Netanyahu, there is now no daylight between any of those parties, including Romney, and Avigdor Lieberman. Lieberman is the Israeli politican who once advocated bombing the Aswan Dam, thereby drowning thousands of Egyptian civilians, and who, as you so politically correctly identify as advocating the “transfer” of Israeli Palestinians as well as those in the territories. A less nuanced interpretation would be ethnic cleansing. Is it not also the case that he has been under long term investigation on serious corruption charges (which will more probably than not ever see the light of day.) If such information and its
implications were be more widely disseminated to the American public, it could be
a game changer for the election, since by the “no daylight” association, Romney is now firmly tied to Lieberman’s politics and his aggressive, war oriented stance to foreign policy. Does this make it inevitable that Romney will be a war president, and that the US will find itself embroiled in numerous Middle East wars on behalf of this client nation?
Wait, wait, wait, wait!
This is really confusing!
I have heard time and again that Bibi is ‘forced’ by chains, if not something heavier, to be locked in with Lieberman.
We’ve all heard the Liberal Zionist narrative: Yes, Bibi isn’t ideal but in his hearts of hearts he wants peace. However, because of his rightist coalition he is locked down.
Deep down, you see, he is a centrist who is just distrustful of the Kadima/Labor coalition politics because he sees them as unstable. Therefore, he takes the more reliable but less compatible match and waits for the right moment.
Well the “right moment” came during the summer and Bibi left the coalition on his own within 90 days. And now, in a final blow to the ‘liberal’ Zionist narrative, Bibi again chooses to go closer to Lieberman, showing very clearly who he personally prefers.
Not Labor, not Kadima. The hard-right. That is his natural home. We have all known this for a long time. But now it will be impossible even for the spinsters like Goldberg to try to paint lipstick on this pig!
Time for the MSM to connect the dots among Adelson, Netanyahu/Lieberman & Romney. Is Israel moving toward forced transfer, ethnic cleansing, funded by the same “folks” funding Romney? Americans who are deciding to vote for Romney on the economy need to be aware of the foreign policy implications of his main funding sources. MSM who continue to duck the issue are going to be complicit in what results, to bad effect. Adelson apparently got Romney’s “no daylight” pledge in exchange for a “don’t embarrass me” pledge. Time for Romney to be embarrassed. Time for him to be asked publicly if he agrees with the majority of Israelis who support forced transfer of Palestinians to achieve effective ethnic cleansing, with requiring loyalty oaths of Arab citizens, with indicting Arab Knesset members for treason. Time for the American election to be about American values, and time for the Israeli election to force Israelis to face the consequences of continued escalation in its war on universal values.