Israeli FM warns Palestinians not to declare state

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Israel's hard-line foreign minister warned Palestinians against plans to unilaterally declare independence next year, saying in an interview Tuesday that such a move could prompt Israel to annex parts of the West Bank and annul past peace agreements.

Avigdor Lieberman also made harsh comments about Turkey, Israel's increasingly alienated ally, saying the Turkish prime minister was coming to resemble Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi.

Lieberman, who heads an ultranationalist party, has become known for a belligerent tone that has earned him critics abroad and inside Israel.

His remarks Tuesday on Palestinian independence took aim at a Palestinian policy that has emerged as U.S. attempts to restart peace talks have stalled.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, whose Western-backed administration has a limited governing role in the Israeli-controlled West Bank, announced plans to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state, possibly as early as the summer of 2011 — even without a peace deal."

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Israel FM insists no settlement freeze in Jerusalem

<snip>

"Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman reiterated on Tuesday that there would be no halt to construction in east Jerusalem despite international demands for a complete settlement freeze.

"We cannot freeze construction in Jerusalem, neither in the east nor the west, neither for Arabs nor for Jews, because it would jeopardise our sovereignty as a state in our own capital," he told public radio.

Israel seized mostly Arab east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed it shortly thereafter in a move not recognised by the international community or the Palestinians, who consider it the capital of their promised state.

Lieberman, the tough-talking head of the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, said international demands that Israel withdraw from the entire West Bank, including east Jerusalem, were unrealistic.

"The international community wants us to go back to the lines of June 1967, which would not end the conflict but move it closer to Tel Aviv," he said."

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[LeftishBrit]

1. Bibi, sack this twerp; even you can't be insane enough to keep him on. Or probably you can.

Interesting that both Lieberman and some Hamas members have attacked the idea of statehood declaration. Neither seem to want to actually do anything toward a solution when push comes to shove.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

4. Lieberman is invaluable to Bibi; "I can't dent my coalition" is a vital shield.

If you want to find out what Netanyahu's real views and desires - as opposed to what he says for reasons of realpolitik - are, I think the best way is to look at the positions he espoused before he became Prime Minister.

Once you do that, it looks highly likely that most of what Leiberman says and Netanyahu condemns is stuff Netanyahu himself sympathises with, and that he is probably encouraging Lieberman to maintain a hardline stance so that Netanyahu can claim that he is being pressured into doing the things he wants to do but can't admit to.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. What would Lieberman's position be if the Palestinians declared a state under the aegis of

a United Nations Resolution?

[azurnoir]

3. IMO Lieberman's comment's are near comical

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned the Palestinian Authority this week against plans to declare independence unilaterally next year, saying such a move could prompt Israel to annex parts of the West Bank and annul past peace agreements.

"Any unilateral decision will release us from all of our commitments and will allow us also to make unilateral decisions," Lieberman was quoted as saying by Israeli media.

"For example, imposing Israeli sovereignty on certain areas, cutting off all kinds of ties and transfers of money and a string of benefits and agreements put into place since the Oslo accords," he said.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1161137.html

and what is new here? what will Israel do that it is or has not already, the lone exception would be officially annexing OPT

[IndianaGreen]

5. He is a Russian pork eater

Who cares what he says!

[LeftishBrit]

6. What should that have to do with anything?

I can't stand the dangerous ultra-nationalist nutter; but you sound as though you're quoting someone from Shas or similar.

[IndianaGreen]

7. A lot of those Russian emigrés had the most tenuous Jewish roots

Israel should have never taken the lot of them, most of which were as Jewish as my dog is.