LIEBERMAN SAYS 'JUMP', EUROPE SAYS 'HOW LOW?' - April 9, 2009

Pardon a bit of schadenfreude at seeing European MPs squirming in their parliamentary seats, outraged at the prospect of Jean-Marie Le Pen becoming ceremonial president when Brussels reconvenes in July. Oh, how indignant they must be.

A bigot in their midst. An embarrassment indeed -- particularly for a place that has spent the last week impugning Israel for having one of its own.

Let’s be clear, that is exactly what Avigdor Lieberman is: a bigot.

The man has a big mouth, one from which disgusting things often

emanate, and his appointment as foreign minister makes a mockery

of the diplomatic profession. He may clean up his act a bit, but for

more than a few Israelis, Lieberman is simply an embarrassment.

But Benjamin Netanyahu’s foreign minister posing a threat to

regional and international stability? How has Europe’s best and

brightest so quickly arrived at such a conclusion, if not based on

ignorance, malice or a combination thereof?

And conclude they have. A planned summit between Netanyahu

and European Union leaders has already been canceled, according

to Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg. A joint meeting of

the German and Israeli cabinets has been postponed indefinitely by

Chancellor Angela Merkel. Luxembourg’s foreign minister, Jean

Asselborn, is demanding that the E.U. impose sanctions against Jerusalem.

That’s quite a diplomatic offensive, considering that Lieberman only took office on April 1 -- all the more so considering that he has done little of importance since then, other than opening his rather offensive mouth.

Before spewing yet more admonitions, the good leaders of Europe would do well to consider the words of Ephraim Sneh. As deputy defense minister under Ehud Olmert, the veteran Laborite had this to say about Lieberman’s ministerial portfolio: “He is in charge of talking.”

Does anyone in Europe really believe that Lieberman will be given free rein in a government led by Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak -- both of whom have served stints as foreign minister? Now, I can’t claim to know what is going on in either Netanyahu or Barak’s head, but I’m willing to guess that neither one of them thinks Avigdor Lieberman is a man of their caliber.

Netanyahu and Barak, it’s worth recalling, once served together in the same commando reconnaissance unit, the elite Sayeret Matkal, with Barak outranking Netanyahu. Contrast that with Lieberman, who in his younger days served as a bouncer at a nightclub.

Netanyahu and Barak have served as prime ministers. Lieberman has served a prime minister: Netanyahu.

Netanyahu’s Likud and Barak’s Labor were the sole pillars of Israeli politics for decades. Lieberman’s party is just 10 years old, and even in the recent elections -- when it became the third largest party, displacing Labor -- Yisrael Beiteinu won just 6% of the votes in Israel’s two largest cities, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

And then, of course, there’s this: Lieberman is originally from Moldova. For reasons many and none, Moldovians tend to attract more suspicion in Israel than do, say, kibbutzniks.

It’s also worth recalling that in his first go-around as prime minister, Netanyahu sacrificed Lieberman to save his own political hide. The two of them go back to the late 1980s, when Lieberman, then a Likudnik, was Netanyahu’s campaign chief. When Netanyahu won the 1996 elections, he took Lieberman with him to the Prime Minister’s Office.

As director general, Lieberman played the enforcer -- Netanyahu’s Rahm Emmanuel, as it were -- and his efforts to force party unity led the old Likud elite into open rebellion. Just a year into the job, Netanyahu’s director general resigned -- and Lieberman’s angry farewell speech made clear that the idea wasn’t his.

Would Netanyahu sacrifice Lieberman again, if push came to shove? Only the prime minister knows -- but there is this thought to consider: Were Lieberman to be pushed out, the government would be hiring for a foreign minister. As it so happens, there’s a woman in Israel who has (quite recent) experience in the job -- and who, it may have been forgotten, actually won the most votes in this past February’s elections.

Would Tzipi Livni serve under Netanyahu? Her conditions for Kadima’s entry into a Likud coalition weren’t met in February, but who’s to say that Netanyahu might not offer her an extra carrot or two sometime in the near future?

As it is, Lieberman might be forced out by the fraud squad of the national police. Less than a day after taking over the Foreign Ministry, he was questioned by detectives for seven hours on suspicion of bribery, money laundering, fraud and breach of trust. The day after that, he was questioned for five. Police have reportedly said that he may be charged within months.

To be sure, corruption investigations against high officials are shockingly common in Israel, and all too many are stymied by the privileges of high office. But Israeli politicians do occasionally pay for their transgressions, parliamentary immunity notwithstanding -- just ask Omri Sharon, son of Ariel and convicted former Likud and Kadima lawmaker.

If Lieberman loses his job, either by Netanyahu’s doing or by his own, the most likely candidate to replace him is either Livni or the Likud’s currently disgruntled Silvan Shalom. Both have already served stints as foreign minister, and as veteran diplomats and wily politicians, you can be sure they are taking notes now while they plot their return to power.

They know better than most that peace talks in the coming year are entirely plausible -- not with the Palestinians, of course, but with the Syrians (Lieberman’s recent grandstanding about the Golan Heights notwithstanding). And after the unrestrained European outburst against Israel this past week, it’s hard to imagine Livni, Shalom or anyone else in Jerusalem saving a seat for Javier Solana at the negotiating table.

If you were Israeli, would you? Would you feel comfortable entrusting your country’s fate to a continent that calls for your head without even waiting to consider the evidence?

If Avigdor Lieberman acts like a bum, then by all means do your damn best to run him out of town. You’d be doing all Israelis a favor. But threatening sanctions now, when it’s not even clear if Lieberman will wield any real power?

Come now. You make yourselves look like fools. You might have the power to get away with it -- but that doesn’t make you any less of a fool.

Oren Rawls

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Author of the article is a New York-based journalist and former opinion editor of the Forward newspaper.

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