Dear Posters

So the tough man Olmert has invited Lieberman to join his governement

Pls see the bbc link below
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6084362.stm

So will this lead to progress in the region or lead to more bloodsheed??

Your thoughts please people.

Thank you for reading

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take care
zak

nobody has said anything?
where's all the crybabies?
ok i'll say something

Lieberman is the most extreme cabinet member right now. he's far more extreme than Sharon was in the last 5 years. his ideas are not new. they were simply on the backburner since the doomed Oslo Accords were signed. now that the public sees that these accords have led to nowhere but bloodshed and strategic blunders, people are rethinking stuff.

but the post-Oslo years have done their damage. Israelis have become too pacifistic. i therefore don't expect him to last very long in the government.

Stock the government with Judeo-fascists and you will receive an Islamofascist response. Extremes aren't working. This guy should hang.

Stock the government with Judeo-fascists and you will receive an Islamofascist response. Extremes aren't working. This guy should hang.

you meant the response that made Lieberman so appealing in the first place?

Lieberman is almost as wacky as Ahmadinejad. They would make such a cute couple.

Here's some more optimistic news: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/782052.html

Hi Zep
I hope all is good with you

thank you for your post i will check the link out in a minute..

One thing on Lieberman is that according to URI Avnery he threatened to destroy Egypt by blowing up the Aswan Dam!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Take care
zak

Here's some more optimistic news: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/782052.html

yes Zep just read the article, lets hope this picks up momentum, quite encouraging in light of recent events.

Thank youi for posting the link.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
take care
zak

Hi Zep
I hope all is good with you

thank you for your post i will check the link out in a minute..

One thing on Lieberman is that according to URI Avnery he threatened to destroy Egypt by blowing up the Aswan Dam!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Take care
zak

I honestly cannot think of anyone more left-wing in Israel than Uri Avnery. I therefore cannot trust his mental capacity, nor his conspiracy theories. So whatever he says you can pretty much ignore.

But Lieberman is the most right-wing member of Knesset today. I see him as a mini Kahane (Masha'al was called in several articles "mini Arafat" and Olmert "mini Sharon").
Although Kahane was much smarter and much more extreme.

Hi Otheadp
i hope you are well.

thank you for your comments.....

according to the following link Leiberman is quite a haed case. It states that in 1998 Lieberman threaten to bomb the Aswan dam in response to egypts support of Arafat

http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20061030-085348-2187r

Having this perosn in the israeli cabinet is quite worrying in deed, lets hope he wont be able to exercise any of his regressive ideas.

~~~~~~~
take care
zak

I don't think Lieberman has the authority to attack Egypt, and I don't think the rest of the Israeli government would appreciate it given that Egypt is one of their (two) allies in the Arab world.

What worries me more about Lieberman is his racism - I believe he has expressed the idea of expelling Arabs who fail to declare 'loyalty' to Israel.

He's also suggested swapping areas of Israel with high Arab population to a new Palestinian state in exchange for keeping settlements in the West Bank. Surprisingly, a large number of those residents don't actually want to be stripped of their citizenship and transferred to another government for the sake of the 'settlers'.

1) his ideas are not new. they are old ideas that were put on the backburner since the Oslo accords were signed in the early 1990s -- but now since Oslo (and the "road map" to nowhere) has failed the ideas are resurfacing again. this is evidenced by Lieberman's gain in popularity.

2) he is a bit off his rocker expressing these ideas, because nobody in mainstream (and even rightwing) are saying the same things, at least in public. even Netanyahu and most of the religious parties.

3) i'm not sure how much power he will be able to exercise. that is because of 3 reasons: (a) previous "crazy rightwingers" were outlawed (e.g. Kahane), and if he goes too far, so will he. (b) coalitions are formed and re-formed quite often in Israel. he could very soon find himself out of a job, being in the opposition once again. (c) people in the "establishment" distrust him, and might not follow his orders. there have already been reports of Mossad and defense ministry people publicly and privately stating that they won't cooperate with him, nor share state secrets with him. maybe it's a good thing...

re: bombing Egypt, let's not even go there. there are plenty of things that Egypt is doing which boggles my mind. he is just expressing his frustration.

another thing, you have to understand something about Israeli political discourse - it is very uncivilized. politicians in the Knesset say the craziest shit to each other. that's just the style. so if he did say it about Egypt, there's a good chance he wasn't literal about it