RACISM GETS THE VOTES IN ISRAEL
By Harmony Grant
7 Nov 06
Avigdor Lieberman is an infamous racist who publicly promotes ethnic
cleansing in Israel. On October 30, he was appointed Israel’s
Minister of Strategic Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister. Lieberman’s
new job puts him in charge of policy toward Iran. 1 It also gives
him top-level power to help define Israel in the coming years.
“It's not only an issue of territory and borders,” Lieberman
reflected recently, “but of the character of the state - will
it be a Zionist state, a Jewish state, or a state like others? I
want it to be a Jewish state." 2
American Jews and evangelical Christians who see Israel as a democracy
rather than a racist, religious state should realize Lieberman’s
view is anything but fringe. A September poll showed his popularity
in Israel. He is the second choice, behind Benjamin Netanyahu, to
be the next prime minister of Israel. 3
Lieberman is a Soviet-born Jew who made aliyah in 1978, at age
21. He served in the Israeli Defense Forces, studied at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, and was politically active in Zionism and
socialism, leading in the right-wing Likud party and then Knesset
in 1999. In 2001, he was appointed Minister of National Infrastructures.
In 2004, Lieberman said any Arabs who weren’t “completely
loyal” to the state of Israel should be kicked out, and advocated
a controversial “population swap” aiming for “the
most homogenously Jewish state.” 4 He was sacked from the cabinet
after opposing then-PM Ariel Sharon’s plan for withdrawal from
Jewish settlements in Gaza.
Lieberman continued to advocate loyalty tests for Arab Israelis
while leading the Yisrael Beiteinu party he founded. In March 2006,
Lieberman’s party won 11 out of the 120 Knesset seats.
“Lieberman's party stands,” says Counterpunch, “for
one thing: an Israel finally cleansed of the remainder of the indigenous
Palestinian population.” 5 Knesset minister Ophir Pines said
Lieberman advocates "the expulsion of 90 percent of Israeli
Arabs including those in Jaffa." 6
In May, Lieberman compared Arab Israeli politicians to Nazis, and
said he hoped for the death by execution of Arab Knesset members
who meet with Hamas and observe the Palestinian Nakba (day of catastrophe)
on “Israel’s Independence Day.” 7
Two years ago, Lieberman was sacked by Sharon for his blunt racism,
and opposing Gaza withdrawal. But Sharon’s successor has returned
Lieberman to the top levels of government, proving how much mainstream
support exists for his racist platform.
Arab politician Ahmed Tibi is one Israeli who hates Lieberman’s
agenda. He calls Lieberman "a very dangerous and sophisticated
politician who has won his support through race hatred.” 8
Picture this happening in the USA: the second most popular candidate
for president in 2008 is a public advocate for the expulsion of non-whites
from the country and forced loyalty tests for whatever brown-skinned
people remain. He says on NBC, “Will America be a democratic
country or a white man’s country? I want it to be a white man’s
country.”
This picture isn’t half ugly enough. It would only be a real
comparison if America had enshrined racism in our laws, interned
a dispossessed people in a refugee camp to rot, pilfered billions
in aid from a foreign government we had infiltrated, spied upon,
and deceived… There is too much evil to list.
American Jews and Christian evangelicals who naively support our “democratic
ally in the Middle East” should think long and hard about why
we’re pouring $3 billion yearly into the pockets of men like
Lieberman. Our moral support and financial aid underwrite a nation
of institutionalized injustice, of racism both on the street and
in the seats of government.
When will America wake up?
Endnotes:
1 BBC, Martin Patience, Oct. 26, 2006
2 The Guardian, Jonathan Steele, Nov. 3, 2006
3 Ynet, “Poll: Only 7 Percent want Olmert as PM,” Sept.
21, 2006
4 Haaretz, “Olmert: Lieberman’s views on Israeli Arabs
are not my own,” May 11, 2006
5 Counterpunch, Saree Makdisi, “The Ethnic Cleansing Party
Outpaces Likud,” March 31, 2006
6 Haaretz, “Labor Central Committee votes to remain in government
coalition,” Mazal Mualem, Oct. 29, 2006
7 Ynet, “Lieberman: Judge Arabs MKs like in Nuremberg,” Ilan
Marciano , May 4, 2006
8 The Guardian, Jonathan Steele, Nov. 3, 2006)
