Israel's Arab citizens deserve better than Lieberman

[oberliner]

The day after the UN created the State of Israel, the country's first president, Chaim Weizmann, found time to work on his memoir, "Trial and Error." In it, he issued a warning to the Israeli leaders of today: "I am certain that the world will judge the Jewish state by what it will do with the Arabs." It was Nov. 30, 1947.

Weizmann was an astonishingly accomplished man - chemist, diplomat, statesman - but maybe his most uncanny talent was that of seer. Peering into the future, he glimpsed the ugly turn Israeli politics has recently taken and how it is now acceptable to talk in repulsive ways about the country's 1.3 million Arabs. "There must not be one law for the Jew and another for the Arabs," he wrote.

Weizmann's admonition may not be known to Avigdor Lieberman, an immigrant from the former Soviet Republic of Moldova and now one of Israel's most important political leaders. Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu Party placed third in the recent election, meaning he will almost certainly be part of the next government. Lieberman is often called a "nationalist." Maybe so, but he is also an anti-Arab demagogue.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/02/24/2009-02-24_israels_arab_citizens_deserve_better_tha.html

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

1. We deserve better than our Lieberman, too. (nt)

[LeftishBrit]

3. You do; but even he is not as bad as Avigdor Lieberman

In a Europaean context, Joe Lieberman would be more like Blair; Avigdor Lieberman, more like LePen.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

4. Yeah, Avigdor really is that bad. (nt)

[LeftishBrit]

2. Good article

Lieberman is vile, and his party should not be given respectability. Any more than the equivalent parties in Europe, such as the BNP.

[bemildred]

5. The UN did not create the state of Israel.

The Israeli state unilaterally declared it's own existence right before the UN resolution went into effect. Just saying.

[aranthus]

7. Agreed.

It's interesting how this idea has become so common in the media, academia, and elsewhere.

[oberliner]

8. The UN did create the state of Israel

Without the UN vote on November 29, 1947 there could have been no declaration.

Creating and declaring are not the same thing.

I guess you could say it's semantics, but certainly the UN was at the very least instrumental in the process.

[aranthus]

9. The UN did not create anything

Don't get me wrong. I think that Israel has every right to exist. But the UN had nothing to do with it. All the UN did was make a recommendation to the British as to what they should do before leaving Palestine. The British, as governments had known they would, said thanks but no thanks. All they did was leave. I disagree that the UN vote was instrumental, or even of any significance. Without a UN vote, the British were going to leave Palestine anyway (which was the real reason for the UN vote), and without a great power army to stop them, the Jews were going to declare their state, which already existed in all but name.

[bemildred]

13. I agree with Aranthus about this.

In fact he puts it better than I did. I am, of course, not saying that the UN had nothing to do with it, but the fundamental issue was the British desire to leave and the "facts on the ground", most essentially that the Arab states lost that first war; and I find the notion that Israel would not have declared its independence absent a UN resolution unconvincing.

[aranthus]

6. All Israelis deserve better than Lieberman

and Bibi, Ehud, and Tzipi. Unfortunately, they are suffereing through a dearth of real leadership.

[Idealism]

10. The Israeli's need another Rabin n/t

[LeftishBrit]

11. You're right there.

[aranthus]

12. Agreed. But where is he or she? n/t