Avigdor Lieberman

[Redbear]

Anybody know anything about this guy?

It appears he may have a large effect on the Middle East very soon.

[Idealism]

1. Racist piece of shit, to put it nicely.

[B o d i]

2. Let me google that for you

http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=Who+is+Avigdor+Lieberman

IBTL/M

[Gregorian]

3. If I recall, it was he who wants to wipe out Hamas.

And vows to resist the peace process.

I fear what may happen if these emotional idiots get their way.

[leftchick]

5. so does Netanyahu

and the rest. No one wants to give Palestine anything they have confiscated.

[TheWraith]

8. Hell, that's the LEAST offensive of his positions.

He's a scary individual.

[leftchick]

4. Racist of the first order

Elections 2009 / Haaretz exclusive: Avigdor Lieberman said to be ex-member of banned radical Kach movement
By Lily Galili, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Elections 2009, Israel News

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1061172.html


Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman was once a member of the
outlawed far-right party Kach, the movement's former secretary general revealed on Tuesday.


Yossi Dayan said he issued Lieberman, a prime ministerial candidate whose current electoral campaign against Israeli Arabs has provoked outrage, with a party membership card when he was still a new immigrant to Israel.

"I don't recall to what extent he was active in the movement, but if he denies , I am ready to testify in any forum that Lieberman was indeed a member for a short amount of time," said Dayan.

Kach was banned from running for the Knesset in 1988 for inciting to racism

[SidneyCarton]

6. Mr. Lieberman is a man who has learned nothing from history.

Had he, he would have realized that his very rhetoric echoes that of a certain newspaper publisher named Julius Streicher. Herr Streicher edited a few newspapers in Germany at mid century, most notably the Volkish Beobachter and Der Sturmer, he was hanged at Nuremburg in 1946.

Mr. Lieberman's demonization of Israeli Arabs is ominous in the extreme. It illustrates the supreme danger of defining one's self only in opposition to a principle, in the end you become what you loathe.

[TheWraith]

7. He's called for the "destruction" or forced relocation of Arabic citizens of Israel.

Just for starters.

He's also hinted that Israel should do with the Palestinian territories what the US did with Japan to end World War II. And he made it very clear he was NOT referring to occupation.

When he was appointed defense minister, the labor minister Ophir Pines-Paz resigned in protest, and said Lieberman was basically a racist and nearly a fascist.

Advocated the execution of prisoners, and also the execution of Arabic members of the Knesset for alleged "collaboration" and "incitement."

At his rallies, his crowd of supporters will chant "Death to Arabs" while waiting for him to come on stage.

[Junkdrawer]

9. That's "Mr. King Maker Lieberman" to you Bub...

Mommy...I want my blankey

[LeftishBrit]

10. He's a sort of Israeli version of Pat Buchanan or LePen

Very xenophobic. Regards Israeli Arabs as disloyal citizens, and demands that they should be forced to sign a loyalty oath. (Remarkably similar to many such xenophobic-isolationists' attitudes to Jews elsewhere!) He actually is in favour of a two-state solution, but mainly because the Israeli Arabs could then get dumped on the Palestinian state.

The only good thing about him is that he's not a religious-right type (or religious at all), and the religious party Shas has already attacked him for his secularism (in fact, they used the word 'Satan'). This also has the advantage of leading to division on the Far Right. If one must have religious-righties and xenophobic-righties, it's better that they be rivals than that they be the same people. He *could* have some role as a 'kingmaker' as the election is very close as it usually is, and no one party can form a government on its own. Thus, he will not be PM or in a very powerful individual role, but, along with other small-party leaders, could determine whether Kadima or Likud form the government. The decision he'd make isn't as obvious as it first appears: his party was in coalition with Kadima for quite a while! And tbe religious parties might not be happy about working with *him*.

I hope very much that any Israeli government will NOT include him as he is poison. However, he won't be actually in charge of the government.

[leftchick]

11. Juan Cole's view

Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Right Wing Sweeps Israel;
Racialist Avigdor Lieberman Kingmaker
Two State Solution Dead, Challenge to Obama

The outcome of the Israeli election has sounded the death knell for the two-state solution. There are not 61 votes for it in the new Knesset of 120 seats. A good 64 of the just-elected and/or re-elected Members of Parliament favor accelerated Israeli colonization of the West Bank and oppose Palestinian statehood. Most militant of all is Avigdor Lieberman, a former bouncer from Moldova who has risen in Israeli politics on a platform of racial hatred for Israeli-Palestinians (20% of the population), whom he has urged be "executed" or made to take loyalty oaths, stripped of their citizenship and possibly transferred to the Palestine Authority.

With Lieberman emerging as kingmaker in the new government, logically speaking, there are only three other plausible future relationships of Israel and the Palestinians:

1. Apartheid, with Israeli citizens dominating stateless Palestinians and controlling their borders, land, water and air. Apartheid would be accelerated under Lieberman's baleful influence. Over time, this outcome would break down, since it will be unacceptable to the rest of the world over the coming decades).

2. Expulsion. The Israelis could try to violently expel the Palestinians (and possibly Israeli-Palestinians as well), creating a massive new wave of refugees in Jordan or Egypt's Sinai. (This option would almost certainly end the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan and might well push the Arab states into the arms of Iran, creating a powerful anti-Israel military coalition and a huge set of threats to the United States.)

http://www.juancole.com/