Long-time colleague/rival says PM suffers from ‘political paranoia,’ is ‘all talk’ on thwarting Tehran’s nuke project, is allowing Hamas to rearm in incomprehensible ‘silent deal’
The Israeli government will not take the steps necessary to stop Iran from getting the bomb, former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman said.
In an interview in which he savaged his former political ally Benjamin Netanyahu, Liberman said the prime minister is “all talk” when it comes to thwarting Iran, and in practice “it’s clear that he doesn’t have any intention to do what we need to do to prevent Iran from (attaining) nuclear capabilities.”
Liberman, who chose not to take his six-member Yisrael Beytenu Knesset faction into the new coalition, also charged that the government has a “silent agreement” with Hamas under which the Islamist terror group is being allowed to rebuild and improve its military infrastructure in Gaza.
“When [Defense Minister Moshe] ‘Bogie’ Ya’alon and Bibi [Netanyahu] say Hamas is deterred, they’re not deterred. We’re deterred,” Liberman told The Times of Israel. “We pay Hamas for the current relative quiet via a silent agreement, in which, under the table, we agree that they are rehabilitating their entire terrorist infrastructure. Hamas is working 24/7 — digging new tunnels, producing new missiles, much more accurate and devastating. I visited the Gaza envelope communities. You can look out of the residents’ windows and see with the naked eye how Hamas is building fortifications. Most of the materials they’re smuggling in are coming from Israel, not from the Sinai. We know this and we agree to it, and we give our silent agreement to their rehabilitation of their terrorist infrastructure.”
Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman. (Photo credit: Miriam Alster/FLASH90)
Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman. (Photo credit: Miriam Alster/FLASH90)
Asked why the Netanyahu government was allowing this to happen, Liberman said: “I cannot understand.”
He also predicted that there would be another war with Hamas in the summer of 2016.
Liberman has been a persistent critic of Netanyahu’s policies on Gaza, including when he served as foreign minister during Operation Protective Edge last summer, but his multi-faceted castigation of the prime minister in the course of the interview, conducted Tuesday in his Knesset office, was unprecedented.
He not only assailed Netanyahu’s handling of the Iran face-off and the battle against Hamas, but also accused the prime minister of betraying his own principles by doing deals with terrorists, presiding over what he called a “pogrom” at the Foreign Ministry by relieving it of its responsibilities, and selling out Israel’s most important demographic sector — those who serve in the IDF and the reserves, and work and pay taxes — by caving to ultra-Orthodox demands in the construction of his new coalition.
Liberman, who has worked closely with Netanyahu since the late 1980s — he served as director general of the Likud party and as director general of the Prime Minister’s Office under Netanyahu, held several ministerial posts in Netanyahu-led governments and allied his Yisrael Beytenu party with Likud on a joint list in the 2013 elections — asserted that the prime minister ripped apart his last coalition because of unfounded concerns that his coalition partners were plotting against him.
“The only thing that interests him is his political survival,” Liberman said of Netanyahu, and “he always has all kinds of fears… It’s very easy to incite his thoughts… Nobody wanted to bring him down” in the last coalition; he dissolved the Knesset “for no good reason.”
Netanyahu, said Liberman, suffers from something “like political paranoia.”
Also in the interview, the former foreign minister set out a vision of what he called “a regional, comprehensive solution” in the Middle East, saying he did not “believe that it’s possible to resolve our dispute with the Palestinians in the bilateral framework.” He said he would back a freeze in building at isolated settlements — even including his own home settlement of Nokdim — but lambasted Netanyau for failing to build as necessary in Jewish neighborhoods over the Green Line in Jerusalem and in the settlement blocs. “I don’t want to build in [the Arab Jerusalem neighborhood] Jabel Mukaber, but I can’t accept that we don’t build in Gilo, Ramot and East Talpiot. Don’t build in Nokdim. I’m an isolated settlement. But not to build in Ma’aleh Adumim, in Alon Shvut?”
Without specifying, Liberman said he had presented the last cabinet with a strategy for ousting Hamas from Gaza without the Israeli military reconquering the Strip, and that the key was ensuring Israel knew who would take charge of Gaza after Hamas’s reign was brought to an end.
He also urged Israel to reward those who stand with it from the Israeli Arab community — notably the Druze, Bedouin and Christian Arabs who fight in the IDF — and said Israel had a dire history, instead, of seeking to appease extremists.
And he reserved withering criticism for the international community on Iran, accusing it of acting immorally in its engagement with the regime.
“The Iranians don’t rest for an instant. Their goal is wipe out Israel. They make no secret of it. In the Rouhani era, they repeat it every week,” said Liberman. “It’s absolutely dreadful that the countries of the world are prepared to maintain diplomatic relations, prepared to reach an agreement with a country whose official policy is to wipe out the State of Israel. It’s terrible from a moral point of view. They know that they are signing an agreement with a country that says openly that its goal is to annihilate the Zionist entity. And the nations of the world meet with them, and laugh with them, and they shake hands and dine together. And they sign agreements with them.
“There’s no doubt, to my sorrow,” he said, “that this is a return to the Munich policy (of appeasement).”
@ SHmuel HaLevi 2:
New leaders are needed. Recycling the same people is not healthy. I was hoping Bennett and Bayit Yehudi would keep growing.
However when Bennett in the last election made a mistake of trying to bring a soccer player into the party instead of a talented experienced person with broad nationalistic appeal the party rebelled.
The party needs to become big nationalistic tent or Likud becomes the only nationalistic option on a broad scale. Parties like Yahad only pull away votes from Bayit Yehudi.
The structure of elections/Knesset makes for splinter parties.
Having said all the foregoing in elections many times for voters you vote for the least bad choice or the best available. Choosing between Likud and the Herzog/Livni it still comes up Likud with Bibi (imperfections and all).
@ woolymammoth:
🙂 Quite right except that I find the demand for honest, well educated, JEWISH persons and non Jewish as well, much more akin to my vision of what candidates to lead should be than “experienced” political trash fished usually in the dirty swamp that the Israeli combina is.
Clearing the deck, and I am extremely careful with the spelling… is a must.
@ SHmuel HaLevi 2: I respect whatever your message is because you survived a lot longer in ISRAEL than did I. However;
1. During the recent election campaign, Netanyahu stated that there would be no Palestinian State on his watch. OBAMA immediately used these remarks, made in the heat of a seemingly very close election race as a pretext to change long standing US policy on supporting ISRAEL
In The UN. One can see the results of independent thinking emanating from The PM and it’s implications in it’s dealings with The US and Europe. Netanyahu’s cautious to a fault approach is hence, validated.
2. Caroline Glick and Sarah Honig are excellent journalists. I am certain if the average person got tossed in the ring with either one, especially Glick, one could reasonably expect to have one’s ass kicked, rather severely. Nonetheless, to my knowledge neither have ever held an elected governmental position, and that is not all. Glick, IS A WRITER, not a leader, besides, she gets too emotional and lashes out in a rather uncontrolled manner, however appealing I personally find that particular outburst. She comes off as quite the loose wire and makes Begin seem like a poodle in comparison. I would not want to be Glick’s enemy, no not her.
@ woolymammoth:
I understand you. You have been formed into the Israeli mold or similar one.
I never advocated for Livni or the like, nor for Lieberman. Lets see if we get it. We demand NEW people. NEW people. New People. Professor Aumann, Caroline Glick, Sarah Honig, and hundreds of others, including many in this blog starting with Ted.
Netanyahu never did nor will stop Iran. In fact he did not deal with Hamas in 50 days that led into another pathetic “cease fire”.
We must select NEW people.
@ SHmuel HaLevi 2: The alternative to Netanyahu was Herzog and Livni. Is there a Palestinian State?
With respect to Iran. Now that Iran is on the defensive on the home front by an Arab force, it will be easier to hire services to implement our program. Netanyahu did good to be patient, keep the issue alive in all of our minds and stay flexible for when the right moment arrives.
No. Is there a Palestinian State under serious consideration in The PM office. No Way.
Would you prefer Yossi Beilin as your Justice Minister in place of Hotovely? I do not think so.
I do not see a disaster, sorry. Former Ambassador to The UN And JCPA Director, a solid respected PRO ISRAEL think tank was just last week appointed to be Director General of The Foreign Ministry. Dore is no slouch. On the other hand Lieberman has one hell of a lot of nerve to castigate his former boss in such a crass and self serving manner. I’m glad he is in the opposition. Apigdor almost caused Livni and Herzog to win the election. I would tell him the following, EIN COCK OF ZAY, with all due respect, sir.
There is one immutable law of human psychology: presented a choice between good and evil, liberals will choose evil. The New York Times editorial board was originally gung ho about Hitler. Liberals embraced Stalin and Mao and Castro and Pol Pot and Arafat and all of history’s other tyrannical reprobates. They do so while inverting reality, indignantly insisting that fact is fiction.
Birds fly. Fish swim. Liberals lie. It is the nature of the beast.
So naturally the world’s liberal leaders are drawn to the incomparably deceitful Iranian regime just as flies are drawn to horseshit. What would be amazing is if there were a regime that was sadistically degenerate and liberals did not adore it.
Lieberman is correct. That does not make of him a candidate for any function in government.
On the other hand, Netanyahu is an unadulterated disaster, such disaster that can “lead” to the destruction of the State and us all.
Will the people finally act?