It's pretty hard to pin a political ideology on Israel's Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman.
Over his decades in politics here in Israel he has come out with a very wide range of policy statements which jump well across the political spectrum. Besides "consistent inconsistency," they are great headline grabbers.
Often he surprises with something out of Left field, like his offer of land exchange with the Arabs. He offered some of pre-1967 Israel for some of the Land we liberated in 1967. This shocked people, since he, himself, lives in Gush Etzion, placing his address and expected ideology to the Right. And those on Israel's Right, and even Center, don't offer Arabs land that are part of sovereign Israel since the 1949 ceasefire agreement.
Lieberman's recent statement about only building in the main "settlement blocs" is not only a Left/Center stand, but it's common in Gush Etzion, which considers itself "consensus." I've written before how dangerous it is for all that they refuse to realize that the Left and most foreigners consider their homes no more acceptable than mine in Shiloh. They are in Lala Land, because the United States State Department and the United Nations consider all of the land we liberated in 1967, including Ramat Eshkol, Efrat, Elkana etc to be the same Arab status as Shiloh, Itamar and Hebron.
Basically, even more than Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Lieberman sounds more Right out of power than in power. Since the Israeli voting public leans to the Right, when campaigning, Lieberman talks the talk, but now in power, he won't walk the walk.
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| Avigdor Liberman of the Yisrael Beiteinu party leading a news conference at the Knesset, May 18, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) |
Over his decades in politics here in Israel he has come out with a very wide range of policy statements which jump well across the political spectrum. Besides "consistent inconsistency," they are great headline grabbers.
Often he surprises with something out of Left field, like his offer of land exchange with the Arabs. He offered some of pre-1967 Israel for some of the Land we liberated in 1967. This shocked people, since he, himself, lives in Gush Etzion, placing his address and expected ideology to the Right. And those on Israel's Right, and even Center, don't offer Arabs land that are part of sovereign Israel since the 1949 ceasefire agreement.
Lieberman's recent statement about only building in the main "settlement blocs" is not only a Left/Center stand, but it's common in Gush Etzion, which considers itself "consensus." I've written before how dangerous it is for all that they refuse to realize that the Left and most foreigners consider their homes no more acceptable than mine in Shiloh. They are in Lala Land, because the United States State Department and the United Nations consider all of the land we liberated in 1967, including Ramat Eshkol, Efrat, Elkana etc to be the same Arab status as Shiloh, Itamar and Hebron.
Basically, even more than Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Lieberman sounds more Right out of power than in power. Since the Israeli voting public leans to the Right, when campaigning, Lieberman talks the talk, but now in power, he won't walk the walk.