RUTHFULLY YOURS

I am no more a fan of Lieberman becoming Israeli defense minister than many other people, and would have preferred former army chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon to remain in the post, or for it to have been given to center-left opposition leader Isaac Herzog. Herzog was offered to choose someone for the defense post by Netanyahu, but his party refused to join the coalition.

But some of the reporting on Lieberman is unnecessarily alarmist. The articles below are designed to counter-balance some of the attacks on Lieberman published in papers such as The Guardian and New York Times in recent days.

The New York Times news piece from Jerusalem on May 20 by James Glanz and Irit Pazner Garshowitz describes Lieberman as “an ultranationalist”.

Both the text and headline of the New York Times news piece from Jerusalem on May 19 by Isabel Kershner also calls Lieberman as “an ultranationalist”. (Kershner is a well-informed reporter, who I have known personally for 30 years, and it is not impossible that the editors in New York may have inserted the word “ultranationalist”.)

Today’s New York Times editorial also uses the word “ultranationalist” about Lieberman and says his appointment “makes a mockery of any possible Israeli overtures to the Palestinians.”

The Guardian also calls him an “ultranationalist”.

In fact, many views held by Lieberman are to the left of the Likud and other parties in the coalition and the coalition may become less right-wing as a result of his inclusion. For example, as the Washington Post makes clear, Lieberman is on record saying much of the West Bank should be evacuated in the context of a peace deal.

But many of the media just routinely call any new government headed by Netanyahu “the most right-wing ever,” even when this is not true.

Lieberman has already twice served as foreign minister in recent years and certainly has no worse a record than many other recent Israeli foreign ministers. Indeed diplomats I know, including those that subscribe to this list, even those that don’t share Lieberman’s politics, say he was a better foreign minister than others they have served under allowing them to do their job without undue political interference.

Haaretz columnist Yoel Marcus:

“Relax, Israel’s defense minister isn’t calling the shots and Lieberman won’t bomb Egypt. The defense minister is not omnipotent. In reality, he decides much less than most people think he does… Why the panic? This is a democracy, in all its beauty and ugliness. And as a rule, important (and unimportant) decisions aren’t made by one man.

“True, Lieberman doesn’t really understand military issues. But if he could serve as foreign minister, why can’t he be defense minister? Is he less suitable than Isaac Herzog, our sweet little opposition leader who’s being eaten for breakfast by his party colleague, Shelly Yacimovich?”

Haaretz columnist Israel Harel:

“Don’t rush to the bomb shelters, Avigdor Lieberman is harmless He won’t lead Israel into a war; quite the opposite. He’ll want to prove that, contrary to his reputation, he’s a judicious and pragmatic man.

“He won’t lead us into an attack on Iran; he won’t retake Gaza, even though he demanded doing so during Operation Protective Edge in 2014 and on other occasions. And he won’t stop the ‘humanitarian’ shipments of cement with which Hamas is rebuilding its tunnels.

“And residents of the largely Arab Wadi Ara area shouldn’t start rejoicing. To their great sorrow, they won’t be transferred to the Palestinian Authority’s jurisdiction, based on Lieberman’s plan, and won’t be able to enjoy the delights of equality in the enlightened Palestinian democracy.

“The responsible ideological right that views the country’s needs from a broad, comprehensive perspective is the group that actually ought to be worried, very worried, by the prospect that these two spineless men, Netanyahu and Lieberman, both devoid of any binding ideology, will be leading the country.”