A Dangerous Fellow...That No Body Can Deny

Yesterday, I had the disturbing experience of realizing I agreed with a Member of Knesset from Israel's ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party. MK David Rotem, commenting yesterday on the reaction to his party leader and Israel's Foreign Minister's speech at the United Nations, said:

[T]he Foreign Minister's views are well known to all, and have not changed... What the Foreign Minister said in that speech is the same thing he has been saying for years. So for any minister or politician to say that they are surprised at Minister Lieberman's comments is a bit misleading.

I couldn't agree more. No one should be or act surprised by the speech Avigdor Lieberman gave this week advocating for the removal of Arab citizens from the state of Israel. He has been on record for years putting forward very similar ideas about disenfranchising the native inhabitants of the land, even those with Israeli citizenship. He has been on a crusade against Palestinian-Arab Members of Knesset. MK Ahmad Tibi, who I interviewed here , had this exchange with me on Lieberman:

YM: I want to focus a little but on some of the fascist elements of this coalition that you mentioned. How has life changed for the Palestinian citizens of Israel since the rise of the Israeli right? [Israeli Foreign Minister] Avigdor Lieberman and Yisrael Beiteinu have been very aggressive toward this population. What new challenges are they facing?

AT: Racism became mainstream in Israeli society. Once, racists were only in the streets. Now, they are in the government; deputy prime minister, foreign minister, home minister. Avigdor Lieberman is targeting and concentrating all his efforts against the Arab minority and Arab citizens - mainly against the Arab MKs, ourselves, in order to de-legitimize our presence, our very presence in our homeland. He is proposing revoking our citizenship as a community. It is very strange that an immigrant who came just 30 years ago to the country by airplane is willing to deport or revoke the citizenship of the indigenous people. He is creating a hostile atmosphere towards us. Once, when Jörg Haider was elected in Austria as a leader of a party, the Austrian government was isolated. Here, he is being accepted in some capitals as a foreign minister. It’s a double standard. This man should be boycotted. He is a fascist by all means.

You might be surprised to know who else shares similar views about Avigdor Lieberman. Marty Peretz said Lieberman is a "neo-fascist … a certified gangster … the Israeli equivalent of [Austria's] Jörg Haider." I know what your thinking, it can't be the same Marty Peretz. But it is! This is the same Peretz that claimed "Muslim life is cheap" and is well-known for his bigoted remarks towards Arabs and Palestinians and his repeated denial of Palestinian nationhood. Matt Duss did a good job pointing this out here.

The point of this is that if Lieberman is so bad that even an anti-Arab bigot like Marty Peretz wants nothing to do with him, then it should be no secret that Avigdor Lieberman is one dangerous guy.

But he isn't just one dangerous guy, he is one dangerous guy who leads the third largest party in Israel after Kadima (or Likud-lite) then Netanyahu's Likud party. Lieberman's party's performance in the last election signified a major shift to the right in Israeli domestic politics, and underscored the fact that Lieberman's fascism was resonating with large segments of Israeli society.

So when Lieberman was at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) advocating the outright disenfranchisement of Arab citizens of Israel, how could anyone act surprised? Those who did pretend to be caught of guard, like Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu who claimed he had no idea what his Foreign Minister was up to while representing his nation at the UNGA, do so because the direction Israel is heading is even more embarrassingly indefensible then where it is today, even for neo-cons and Likudniks. The ethnic Russian constituency, which is largely behind the fascism of Lieberman, and the fast growing settler population are undeniable power centers in Israel and will continue to be.

By deferring the end of the occupation, a nightmare named Avigdor Lieberman festers like a sore and has begun to ooze. Those who ignore the reality of this threat, including policy makers in Washington who continue to work with an Israeli government that includes such hateful parties, only aid and assist the growth and development of these dangerous and destructive forces.

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