Avigdor Lieberman’s apparently inexorable rise in Israeli politics continues. The blowhard nationalist, former nightclub bouncer and secular sectarian who would rather a pure Jewish state than countenance equal rights for Jews and non-Jews, now holds the second most powerful ministry in the country. Lieberman’s record suggests this could either end unremarkably or very, very badly indeed. Between shooting from the hip and bending to prevailing winds – also known as political pragmatism – there doesn’t seem to be a lot of substance. Even by the questionable standards of Israeli politics, the defense portfolio is a huge gift to a man who was convicted of a 1999 assault on a 12-year-old boy and has been implicated in a major corruption investigation. That is without taking into account countless incendiary comments about Palestinians, for whom he is trying to introduce their very own death penalty, Palestinian citizens of Israel, who he wants to expel, and foreign politicians. When H...

In February 2015, Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's new defence minister, who was serving as a foreign minister at the time, declared that; "a fourth operation in the Gaza Strip is inevitable, just as a third Lebanon war is inevitable." As the second anniversary of Israel's war on Gaza, dubbed Operation Protective edge, approaches, Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave say that Lieberman's appointment as the Israel's defence minister brings him a step closer to achieving his unsettling prophecy. "We should not be fooled by Zionists who hate the Lieberman-Netanyahu unity," wrote Refaat Alareer, a Palestinian writer and activists, "they, too, want Palestinians killed, but with [silk] scarves, not bombs!" Lieberman, a staunch opponent of peace with Palestinians who heads of the extreme right wing party Yisrael Beiteinu, has served two terms as foreign minister and has little significant military experience. Over the past few years, Gaza i...

A military affairs commentator interrupts his broadcast to deliver a monologue: I'm alarmed by what's happening in Israel, he says, I think my children should leave. Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak warns of "the seeds of fascism". Moshe Arens, who served as defense minister three times, sees it as a turning point in Israeli politics and expects it to cause a "political earthquake". The past five days have produced tumult in Israeli politics, since conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unexpectedly turned his back on a deal to bring the center-left into his coalition and instead joined hands with far-right nationalist Avigdor Lieberman, one of his most virulent critics. Lieberman, a West Bank settler, wants to be defense minister. So on Friday, Netanyahu's former ally and confidant, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon, resigned and quit Netanyahu's Likud party in disgust. After a weekend to digest the developments, which are expected to be fin...

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Hardline Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday he doubted the current Gaza ceasefire would hold over the long term and that disarming Palestinian factions was not feasible anytime soon. After briefing Israeli journalists he was quoted across the local media as saying that he thought the chances of Egypt-mediated talks achieving their goal of a durable Gaza truce were slim. "Any ceasefire, in my opinion, will be limited in time," Lieberman said. Disarming the coastal strip was not on the immediate horizon, he said, but it should be kept in the forefront of international public opinion. "Demilitarization is not realistic at the moment," he was quoted as saying. more

Gaza's Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has warned Israel it would pay a "very high price" if it heeded its foreign minister's call to reoccupy the besieged enclave to try to halt rocket attacks. Speaking on Sunday to tens of thousands of supporters at a public rally marking 10 years since an Israeli air strike killed Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Haniyeh warned Israel that Gaza fighters had far more capabilities than in the past. Ismail Haniyeh, Gaza's Hamas leader "We tell the enemy and [Israeli Foreign Minister] Lieberman who is threatening to reoccupy Gaza that the time for your threats is over," Haniyeh told a rally in Gaza City. "Any aggression or crime or stupidity you commit will cost you a very high price." On March 12, during a two-day flare-up in which Gaza Palestinians fired at least 60 rockets into Israel and the Israelis responded with dozens of air strikes, Lieberman said Israel would have no choice but to reoccupy...

On July 7, London-based newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat quoted its correspondent from Ramallah as saying that the head of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, Avigdor Lieberman, who is also the leader of Yisrael Beiteinu party and an ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called for the occupation of the Gaza Strip without delay. Lieberman also stated that that if he were the prime minister, he would order the conquest of the Gaza Strip. Lieberman said in a radio interview that "the dubious quiet" in Gaza is being used by Hamas to build up its powers. He said there is a link between the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the activity taking place between Sinai and Gaza, adding that he has no doubt that the jihadist elements in the Sinai Peninsula will try to exploit the situation to undermine Israel's security. more

More fascist terror seems to be visiting Europe. This time it is in France, the home of virulent Islamophobia from the top to the bottom of society. North Africans, African-Caribbeans and now Jewish people are being targeted and murdered by a suspect thought to be a paratrooper kicked out of the army because of his far right associations. The EU foreign minister Catherine Ashton has compared the murder of Jewish children in the most recent terroristic outrage to the killing of children in Gaza. There is of course a difference in the way of killing - one is at point blank range while the other is by a pilot at 10,000 feet or a remotely controlled drone operated by a person sitting in a control room - but it is the killing of innocents nevertheless. The Israeli establishment is now up in arms against Ashton for telling some home truths, demanding she retracts her comments. The Israeli military no doubt says their killings of children aren't done deliberately, but when you assassinat...

The forum of eight ministers will meet today in Jerusalem to decide whether to accept the draft of an agreement for ending the diplomatic crisis with Turkey. As part of the proposed deal, Israel will apologize for operational failures that led to the deaths of nine Turkish citizens during the stopping of a Gaza-bound flotilla in May 2010. Ministers Avigdor Lieberman and Moshe Ya'alon are opposed to the apology, while their colleagues Ehud Barak and Dan Meridor support it. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will risk a coalition crisis with Yisrael Beiteinu if he favors the apology. more

Israel's parliament is creating a committee of inquiry into Israeli human rights group that have had the audacity to speak out, and act, against injustice. Gideon Levy writing in Haaretz has written an article attacking the 'democrats' for attempting to outlaw all such groups. There isn't much of an Israeli left, but what there is deserves our support. The Israeli right is on the march and there is no sign that they will be stopped. The next time someone tells you Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East point them to the Knesset's McCarthyite committee. It's high time a legal ban on the Israeli left be instituted. Why do we continue beating around the bush? Why do we need such a taxing, exhaustive legislative process in enacting law after law? What's the use of all these various proposals and amendments? In lieu of all the aforementioned, let's just do one very simple thing: declare the left an illegal entity in the State of Israel. From then on,...

Things seem to be going from bad to worse in the Israel/Turkey relationship, which can only be good news for the Palestinian liberation struggle Israeli officials are seeking a meeting with Turkey's ambassador to protest a show on Turkish television that reportedly depicts Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian children. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says the Turkish TV show "is being done with state sponsorship." Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says the Turkish TV show "is being done with state sponsorship." Turkey has been Israel's strongest Muslim ally in the Middle East, and the move comes as relations between the countries have soured in recent days over the latter's decision to exclude Israel from scheduled military exercises. The Turkish TV show "constitutes the most serious level of incitement, and it is being done with state sponsorship," Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in a statement. more

The fool and thug Lieberman, otherwise known as the foreign minister of Israel, is really losing it. This morning he is accusing Chavez of anti-semitism because of his support for the cause of Palestinian liberation. Israel claims there are Hezbollah cells in Venezuela. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of cooperating with "radical branches" of Islam and of anti-Semitism, according to media reports Thursday in Colombia. "I will not speak about intelligence specifics, but we have enough to be concerned about the collaboration between radical branches of Islam and Hugo Chavez," Lieberman told the El Tiempo newspaper at the conclusion of a 10-day South American visit which included stops in Argentina, Brazil, Peru and Colombia. Lieberman was responding to questions seeking evidence to support Israel's contention that Iranian-backed Hezbollah has cells in Venezuela. more at ynetnews

The United States has stepped up pressure on Israel regarding the Gaza Strip: Three weeks ago it sent Jerusalem a diplomatic note officially protesting Gaza policy and demanding a more liberal opening of the border crossings to facilitate reconstruction. U.S. and Israeli sources say the note was followed by a verbal communication clarifying that the Obama administration thinks Israel's linkage of the case of abducted soldier Gilad Shalit and the opening of the crossings was not constructive. The note was delivered to Israel after a decision by senior U.S. officials including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and special Mideast envoy George Mitchell. The latter discussed the contents of the note during his visit to Israel last week. U.S. demands on Israel's Gaza policy were also raised Wednesday during talks between Clinton and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who is on an official visit to Washington. more

AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN, ISRAEL'S OPENLY RACIST FOREIGN MINISTER, IS COMING TO LONDON ...to meet the British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband and the Shadow Foreign Secretary, William Hague, as part of his bid to strengthen ties between Europe and Israel. PROTEST AGAINST ISRAEL'S RACIST FOREIGN MINISTER WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 10.30AM - 12.00 NOON FOREIGN OFFICE, WHITEHALL, LONDON Protest called by Stop the War Coalition, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, British Muslim Initiative, CND, Palestinian Forum in Britain. JOIN US to show our disgust at the government's willingness to meet with Israeli warmongers. During Israel's bombing and invasion of Gaza, Avigdor Lieberman threatened action 'just like the United States did with the Japanese in World War II', when the US used nuclear bombs to obliterate two cities. He has called for the execution of elected Arab members of Israel's parliament if they have any contact with Hamas, and threatene...

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's extreme-right foreign minister, has told the Italy's Berlusconi that the west should give Iran three months to respond to diplomatic overtures... or it's war: Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday told Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that the West should give Iran three months to respond to diplomatic overtures regarding its contentious nuclear program. If within three months Iran has still not responded, Lieberman said, "action must be taken." The foreign minister also asked Berlusconi to implore Russia on his visit there next month to cut off ties with the militant Hamas and Hezbollah organizations, which have close ties to Iran. more

In an article entited ' The racist Israeli fascist in me ' Bradley Burston expresses well the fact that, from a strategic point of view, Israel is cornered... and Hamas knows it. The weakening of support among American Jews for the Israeli state is of deep concern to Israelis, hence the peculiarly honest article that asserts the right to be racist and fascistic on the basis of rockets harmlessly landing in the Negev desert. The Palestinians of course have no right to defend themselves against the might of the Israeli army, air force and navy: The best way to destroy Israel But now, Hamas is beginning to see something else. At this point, the best way to destroy Israel, is to leave it exactly as it is. Titrate, adjust the flow of rockets fired at Israeli civilians to a level which is thoroughly acceptable to the rest of the world, but which is also entirely unbearable to Israelis. Then, sit back and watch demographics and despair work their magic. No wonder Hamas officials who a...

The European Union has made its clearest signal yet that if Israel wants to maintain its relations with the European Union then needs to show that ii is committed to the peace process. This is another way of saying the election of the most right wing government ever in the history of the settler state threatens to kill off the peace process, which by the way has resembled something more akin to a Pallestinian humiliation process than a move towards a just peace. But Netanyahu and his fascist side kick from Russia, Lieberman, find even the two states solution on offer from the west too much to stomach. In fact the Israeli uber state would continue and the Palestinians would get a disconnected Bantustan a la Apartheid South Africa. Asked to comment on Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu's preliminary coalition pact with the ultra-right Yisrael Beiteinu party, Solana told reporters. "We will be ready to do business as usual, normally with a government in Israel that is pr...

From the Guardian Lieberman has made his campaign slogan "No loyalty, no citizenship", directed at Israel's 20% Arab population. [Above] is one of his campaign ads, starting with mugshots of current and former Arab-Israeli Knesset members (MKs). The narrator's voice intones ominously ... Former MK Abdel Malek Dehamsheh: "I am ready to be a shahid [martyr]." Monthly state pension: NIS 7,000 An emergency beeping sound is heard as a sign reading "A shame and a disgrace" flashes over Dehamsheh's face. It repeats for the next Arab-Israeli politician. MK Abbas Zakour: "We are proud of Hamas and all those who support it." Monthly salary paid by the state: NIS 33,000 Again, the emergency beeping sign and "A shame and a disgrace". MK Jamal Zahalka is excoriated for saying that Arab citizens who volunteer for national service are lepers. After the slogan "Only Lieberman understands Arabic" comes footage of students dem...