Israel's nuclear hawk Avigdor Lieberman in poll surge

Israel's nuclear hawk Avigdor Lieberman in poll surge

www.timesonline.co.uk

AN ultra-rightwinger, who is said to favour flattening Tehran if Iran develops nuclear weapons, has emerged as the politician gaining the most ground in next week’s general election in Israel.

Avigdor Lieberman, 50, is advancing so rapidly in the polls that his Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) party is set to overtake Labour and become the third largest party in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

(visit the link for the full news article)

In a recent interview Lieberman said: “I definitely see myself as ready for the post of defence minister.” Although it is unlikely he would be granted access to Israel’s nuclear arsenal, he could be in line for a senior post in a coalition government led by Binyamin Netanyahu, head of the centre-right Likud party and frontrunner in the polls.

Although polls are just polls, this is a very scary and dangerous development. If this crazy fool would really become minister of defense you can be sure that war is inevitable.

Among the moves suggested by Lieberman are:

Lieberman said the prisoners should be drowned in the Dead Sea and he would provide the buses to take them there.

....

In 1998, Lieberman called for the bombing of Egypt's Aswan Dam for Cairo's support of Arafat.

Hebrew University professor Zeev Sternhell, Israel's leading academic specialist on fascism and totalitarianism, has described Lieberman as "perhaps the most dangerous politician in the history of the state of Israel."

Reacting to Lieberman's appointment, the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz said: "The choice of the most unrestrained and irresponsible man around for this job constitutes a strategic threat in its own right. Lieberman's lack of restraint and his unbridled tongue, comparable only to those of Iran's president, are liable to bring disaster down upon the entire region."


www.timesonline.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Lieberman said the prisoners should be drowned in the Dead Sea and he would provide the buses to take them there.

Source

Hmmm, is it just me or does this statement sound suspiciously like -

"Hitler said the prisoners (Jews) should be gassed in concentration camps and he would provide the trains to take them there."

Not an actual quote but that's the truth of the matter.

It appears the Nazi comparisons are going to be harder for Israel to shrug off if Lieberman is given the position of defense minister.

IRM

[edit on 2/2/09 by InfaRedMan]

My god, I sure hope they dont elect this man into their government! Anyone can see that this man is a bad influence on policies in that area.

reply to post by Tentickles


You should know by now that elections are just for show and that the powers that be have already picked the person who is going to do the job they have been trained to do.

reply to post by munkey66


Thats the sad part.
Either way this cannot be a good thing for that area.

Originally posted by munkey66
reply to post by Tentickles

 

You should know by now that elections are just for show and that the powers that be have already picked the person who is going to do the job they have been trained to do.

In that case, we're doomed.
post.

Terrrific. We just "elected" a man who is one of the few qualified to sort out the mess between the West and the Muslim world, and the first since Carter to actually try to avert war, and now the balance of power is shaken up by a radical nutjob with definite emotional problems.

I remember when Vladimir Zhirinovsky intentionally divided Russia's election back the 90s on a platform of installing giant fans on the border to blow radiation over the Ukraine. He had a significant minority of votes and most people never even read most of his proposed policies, some of which were not that bad. All they cared about was that he appeared unhinged enough to pull off a stunt like that and was widely percieved as anti-Jewish even though he has dual Israeli citizenship and is married to a Jewish woman. This guy truly is frightening and he is not puffing smoke like Zhirinovsky, he's dead serious. The next time Israel cries "anti-semitism" they need to point their fingers at themselves since they've worked overtime to destroy their religion and their country.

Kadima seems to have no problems working together with this extremist:

"If Netanyahu becomes prime minister, we will lose our ability to recruit the United States against Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas," Kadima head and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told Haaretz in an exclusive interview. If Likud wins the election, "our ability to put together an international coalition against those threats will be affected immediately."

Livni did not rule out including Avigdor Lieberman in the government she hopes to form, as long as he accepts its guidelines. She said she believes she could work together with Lieberman, chairman of the nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, on certain domestic issues and on changing the system of government. Despite her position in recent popularity polls, which show her lagging behind Netanyahu, Livni expressed full confidence that she will be victorious in the February 10 election.

Source: Haaretz

How ironic right?

Kadima MK Marina Solodkin, a long-time activist in Russian immigrant politics in Israel, agreed.

"The Russian vote for Israel Beiteinu is more or less the same as it's always been," she said. "There's no change there, and Lieberman is certainly not reaching out to them any more than usual. The only way to explain their rise in popularity is with the vatikim, the veteran Israelis who now suddenly want to vote for them.

"I find it a bit scary," Solodkin continued. "To me they're like fascists."

But to more and more Israelis, Israel Beiteinu is offering exactly what they want to hear.

Source

It could very well happen that this ultra-right racist pig and his party Yisrael Beiteinu will become the third largest party in Israel. It seems that he enjoys a great deal of support in Israel, which is quite ironic, considering their past.

I agree with you - his party is a sign of something bad happening with Israeli society. Not because he is right wing ,not because i think that he is just a populist, and certainly not because of Israeli political problems with creating coalition. He started to rise in the polls once he stated that all Israeli citizens should take an oath of alliance (i hope i translated it correctly) to the country. At first it might sound innocent - but it is meant to hurt Israeli Arab citizens who live in a sort of double reality.They are full citizens and there is less and less discrimination so it is easier to feel as equal - but all symbols of the country are Jewish so it is hard to really feel as an equal.
And his party is rising on the wave of this "campaign". I really do not care about him or his party, but one thing really worry me:
How come so many Israelis got caught on this cheap trick? His party supposed to get now 18 Knesset members - rise from 10(total -120). And this rise is only due to this potentially hazardous campaign that almost surely will not bring a real "oath" thing but will polarize Israeli Jewish and Arab societies even more!

According to 3 large TV-sponsored election surveys (not poll) - results are:
Kadima - 29-30
Likud - 27-28
Yisrael Beyteynu - 15
Avoda - 13-14
Shas - 9
Yahadut Hatora - 5
Merets - 4-5
Raam-Taal - 3-4
Hadash - 3-4
Bayit Yehudi - 3- 4
Yihud Haleumi - 3
Balad - 2-3
So his party is indeed third. Well - at least not 18, "only" 15. But it is not final results - just a survey.

[edit on 10-2-2009 by ZeroKnowledge]

reply to post by ZeroKnowledge


Thanks again for the excellent elaboration, my friend.

A Dutch (Jerusalem based) reporter joined him today on his campaign tour. His supporters were screaming ''death to the Arabs'' and ''this is our country, the Arabs should move to their countries''.

Although you (Zeroknowledge) know probably better than I do, I might know why there's such support for him. Some time ago there was a documentary on TV with a Dutch Jewish girl (in her early 20s) and a Palestinian refugee (also in his early 20s) who went to Israel and Palestine to get a better understanding of the conflict. It was really intriguing but unfortunately it isn't available with English subtitles. Anyhow, the bottom line was that in both Palestine and Israel, children are raised with hate against one another. Palestinians are dirty terrorists and Jews are filthy liars.

This, together with the rocket attacks on Israel, might explain the support as well as the large group of Russian immigrants who support him (he was born in the former Soviet state Moldova).

It seems that the 2 most crazies in Israel may form the next government.

Benjamin Netanyahu and Avidgor Lieberman.... two far right extremists.

You can bet that these two, if they really get in power, as it seems to be, will go bomb Iran.

If there was ever a chance of nuclear war in the middle-east, it's now.

The ``only`` chance we can avert that is if the strike doesn't happen BEFORE Ahmanejidad is kicked out in june, and even if he is, the new leadership better stop all nuclear work or Israel will go right in. Let's hope that's what happen, which probably will.

And we know what will happen after that.

Israel strikes Iran nuclear facilities, probably with nuclear bunker busters. Then Iran strikes back, Israel nuke Tehran and whoever try to attack Israel.

Nobody's interested in Israeli politics? I mean, they've just elected the most right wingers crazy extremists of their entire history, and there was already a high level to reach.

Avidgor Lieberman, advocating nuking Iran, bombing palestinians into oblivion if any rocket was launched, ect...

Congratulations Israel, you just elected nazis, nazis who are anti-semitic, which means hating arabs and jews, but they hate only arabs.

[edit on 10-2-2009 by Vitchilo]

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Controversial ultra-nationalist Avigdor Lieberman is being considered for the job of foreign minister in the cabinet being assembled by Benjamin Netanyahu, an official in Netanyahu's Likud party said.

"There is a serious possibility that Avigdor Lieberman will take the helm of the foreign ministry," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that "nothing has been decided for the moment."

Far-right is on the rise, not just in Israel, but in many countries as well as Britain and my country. Considering what this has lead to in the past, it seems we haven't learnt enough and need another lesson.

I hope that there will be no need for another lesson. Lieberman as foreign minister is still better then him as minister of security but is funny in the weird and sad way. His populist speaches made a lot of people angry when he was in much less important roles. Now when he will be main Israeli dimplomat - what will happen?
How for example he will be able to work with his Arab collegues from other countries? How will he be able to visit Arab countries?
I remeber that to solve similar problem - his party with many voices and needed for coalition but what ministry to give him where he will not do so much damage - special ministry for strategic threats was
created. And he was minister for "dealing with strategic threats on Israel". Aka for creating them with his long tongue. Since with that bombastic name he had no real authority.
Maybe now similar trick should be used? Creat a ministry for "realy super tough dudes who would,like, show them all and be , like, great and all". I think he would fit in perfectly.