Avigdor Lieberman

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Avigdor Lieberman

Minister of Strategic Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister of Israel
In office October 2006 – present

Born	June 5, 1958
Political party	Yisrael Beytenu party

Avigdor Lieberman (Hebrew: אביגדור ליברמן‎), also Liberman (born on 5 June 1958 in Kishinev, Moldavian SSR, Soviet Union) is an Israeli politician and leader of the Yisrael Beytenu party. He has served as the Minister of Strategic Affairs and as a Deputy Prime Minister of Israel since November 2006.

In October 2006 Lieberman and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert signed a coalition agreement. Under the agreement, Lieberman became the Deputy-Prime Minister and Minister of Strategic Affairs, a new position with a focus towards the strategic threat from Iran.^[1]

1 Biography
2 Population exchange Plan
3 Lieberman Plan
4 Popularity and constituency
5 Allegations of anti-Arabism
6 Coalition agreement
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Biography

Lieberman worked as a broadcaster in Baku, Azerbaijan and emigrated to Israel in 1978 at the age of 21. In Israel he served in the Israel Defense Forces, and received a BA in International Relations and Political Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

From 1983 to 1988 Lieberman helped found the Zionist Forum for Soviet Jewry and was a member of the Board of the Jerusalem Economic Corporation and the Secretary of the Jerusalem branch of the Histadrut Ovdim Le'umit ("National Workers' Union"). From 1993 to 1996 he served as Director-General of the Likud party, and from 1996 to 1997 was Director-General of the Prime Minister's office. In 1999, he founded and led the Yisrael Beytenu party, and was the editor of the newspaper Yoman Yisraeli. Lieberman was elected to the Knesset in 1999, and served as Chairman of the Israel-Moldova Parliamentary Friendship League.

Lieberman is married, with three children, and resides in Nokdim in the Judean desert.

[edit] Population exchange Plan

In March 2001 Lieberman was appointed as Israel's Minister of National Infrastructures, but resigned the post in March 2002. In February 2003 he was appointed Minister of Transportation.

In late May of 2004 proposed a plan in which the populations and territories of Jews and Arabs, including some Israeli Arabs, would be "separated". According to the plan, Israeli Arab town adjacent to Palestinian Authority areas would be transferred to Palestian Authority, and only those Arabs who felt a connection with the State of Israel and were loyal to it would be allowed to remain. On May 30 Prime Minister Ariel Sharon condemned Lieberman's statements, stating "We regard Israeli Arabs as part of the State of Israel." On 4 June 2004, as the disputes over the up-coming disengagement plan grew more intense, Sharon dismissed Lieberman from the cabinet.^[2]

Lieberman is the leader of Yisrael Beytenu, a party largely consisting of immigrants from the former Soviet Union countries, disenchanted former Likud voters and some Druze Israelis. Lieberman advocates giving the Palestinian Authority Arab-Israeli towns near the West Bank and having Arabs who remain Israeli citizens take loyalty tests.^[3] With the help of an American political consultant, Arthur Finkelstein, Yisrael Beytenu received 11 seats (out of 120) in the March 2006 Knesset elections, a very large gain. This is partly because of a catchy slogan: "Nyet, Nyet, Da": No, No, Yes as a guide for voting for Netanyahu, Olmert, and Liberman, respectively.^[4]

In May 2006 he called for the execution of Israeli Arab politicians who had had contacts with Hamas or marked the Palestinian Nakba day (which views the creation of Israel as a disaster) instead of Israel's Yom Ha'atzmaut (Independence Day). Lieberman likened these politicians with Nazi supporters during World War II, many of whom were sentenced and hanged in the Nuremberg trials. He has also been quoted as saying the Israeli Arabs should "take their packages and go to hell."^[5]

[edit] Lieberman Plan

In May 2004, Lieberman proposed a plan, under which the Arab-populated "Triangle" area of the Wadi 'Ara region — transferred to Israel by Jordan as part of the 1949 Armistice Agreement — would be handed over to the Palestinian Authority in exchange for keeping large Jewish-populated settlement blocs in the West Bank.

He argues that the residents of the Triangle are Arabs who see themselves as Palestinians and therefore should be re-united with them as part of establishing two separate national entities: one for Israelis and one for Palestinians. Many Israelis see Lieberman's plan as a form of forced population transfer similar to proposals by the far-right Israeli political parties such as Moledet, Herut or Hayil. Though Lieberman's plan would not uproot Arab residents from their homes, it would forcibly revoke their Israeli citizenship and transfer their sovereignty to the Palestinian Authority.

The Lieberman Plan, also known as the "Population Exchange Plan", has drawn sharp criticism from both Left and Right of Israeli politics; by the former for its discriminatory overtones, and by the latter for the idea of ceding parts of the Land of Israel.

According to Lieberman, "The peace process is based on three false basic assumptions; the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the main fact of instability in the Middle East, that the conflict is territorial and not ideological, and that the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders will end the conflict."[1]

[edit] Popularity and constituency

In a poll published by Yedioth Ahronoth on September 21, 2006, Lieberman had more support than any other politician except for Netanyahu to be the next Prime Minister of Israel. Olmert came in fifth with 7%.^[6] Some Druze support Lieberman, one third of the Druze holding Israeli citizenship and living in Golan Heights voted for him.^[7] The majority of his constituency are secular Russian-speaking Israelis as well as former Likud supporters.

[edit] Allegations of anti-Arabism

In 2002, at the height of the Palestinian al-Aqsa Intifada, the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth quoted Lieberman in a Cabinet meeting saying that the Palestinians should be given an ultimatum that "At 8am we'll bomb all the commercial centers...at noon we'll bomb their gas stations...at two we'll bomb their banks....”^[8] In 2003, Ha'aretz reported that Lieberman called for thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel to be drowned in the Dead Sea and offered to provide the buses to take them there.^[9] In May 2004, he said that 90 percent of Israel's one million Arabs would "have to find a new Arab entity" in which to live beyond Israel's borders. "They have no place here. They can take their bundles and get lost," he said.^[10]

In November 2006 Lieberman called for the execution of any Arab Members of Knesset who meet with representatives of the Palestinian government, saying, "World War II ended with the Nurenberg trials. The heads of the Nazi regime, along with their collaborators, were executed. I hope this will be the fate of the collaborators in [the Knesset]."^[11] In response, Arab Israeli Knesset member Ahmed Tibi, demanded that "a criminal investigation be initiated against Lieberman for violating the law against incitement and racism".^[12] He called Lieberman "a very dangerous and sophisticated politician who has won his support through race hatred." Lieberman was cleared of racism charges by the Israeli Deputy State prosecutor, while admitting that the office objected to the content of his statement. Tibi strongly objected to Lieberman's ministerial appointment, describing him as "a racist and a fascist". Labour minister Ophir Pines-Paz, who resigned over Lieberman's appointment, echoed Tibi's remarks, saying that Lieberman was tainted "by racist declarations and declarations that harm the democratic character of Israel".^[13]

[edit] Coalition agreement

On 23 October 2006, the coalition agreement with Kadima placed coalition junior partner Labour party in an uneasy state, as many in the party expressed opposition to having Lieberman sit in the government. Minister of Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ophir Pines-Paz responded by saying that "a minister of strategic affairs is a joke. Lieberman is himself a strategic threat," saying "I will do everything in my power to prevent the entry of that party into the government."^[1] On October 29, the Labour central committee, however, approved Lieberman's entrance to the cabinet. On October 30, the Knesset voted in support of Lieberman joining the government 61 to 38. Ophir Pines-Paz, who led the opposition camp in the Labour party announced his resignation.^[14]