Tsipi Livni vis a vis Lieberman: A new doctrine
Today, many Arab Israeli leaders are accusing the Olmert's Government of conducting a double standard policy towards the Arab community. Some of the current officials of this government have declared that the Arabs in Israel are equal citizens. On the other hand this government has incorporated the right-wing "Israel Beiteinu" Party, headed by Avigdor Lieberman into the coalition and has appointed him as the Minister of National Strategic Threats (mainly domestic) which he claims derive from the Arabs.
Actually, Lieberman's main agenda is to create the circumstances that will enable the transfer of Israeli Arabs. He hopes to remove segments of the Arab population from the Galilee and the Triangle to the West Bank e.g. to the new Palestinian entity or enclaves.
Prime Minister Olmert has condemned this politician but at the same time in order to balance his existences in the coalition, he has appointed an Arab Minister, Mr. Galeb Majadleh This Arab Minister was appointed to be the Minister of Science, Culture and Sport. However, he has no influence or authority neither inside the government nor with his own public.
Majadleh was strongly attacked by the Arab population for his participation in the Olmert Government which includes the hard liner Lieberman who continually instigates against the Arab population. Mr. Majadleh's main function is to attend diplomatic receptions in which he often represents the Israeli Government and its political agenda in order to show the equality of the Arabs in the country
It's obvious today that Mr. Majadleh has no mandate to express his ideas or to promote any Arab agenda. At the same time, however, it's permissible for Mr. Lieberman to instigate against Mr. Majadleh's population.
Lieberman conducts his personal agenda as if there is no Arab Minister and at the same time Mr. Majadleh, who has no Arab political base, behaves as if there is no Lieberman in the government. At the same time, Olmert uses Lieberman's participation in the coalition and his tough and radical right wing expressions against the Arabs in order to position himself in the center with Lieberman to his right. This doesn't reflect the real situation which is that Olmert's political roots are from the ideological roots of Jabotinsky, the famous Revisionist right wing leader who believed that Jordan is the homeland of the Palestinians.
Furthermore, Ms. Tsipi Livni Minister of Foreign Affairs has the same roots of being educated by Jabotinsky's national revisionism. Her father, Itzhak Livni, was the operational officer of the Etzel (Irgun Tsavaee Leumi National Military Organization). She was recruited to the Mossad for two years only because of her family connections. Later, she joined the Likud and became a close associate of Ariel Sharon. Her progress has been described as meteoric. Sharon did not perceive her as a threat and promoted her because of her silence and obedience to him. She was appointed as his Deputy Prime Minister after the grand split from the Likud and the creation of Kadima.
Livni continued to be loyal to Sharon until his stroke in December, 2005. Because of her weakness, and with out the support of Sharon she was forced to surrender to Olmert and his company. She is perceived as a weak politician. Officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs argue that she is a good politician who is always very well prepared for her meetings with other officials and listens carefully to the advices of her colleagues. At the same time, however, they claim that she lacks international and global dynamics perceptions and understanding
For those reasons, she uses the tactics of minimizing her words. However two weeks ago, although she was appointed to negotiate the Palestinian track with Ahmad Qurea (Abu El Ala), she attacked the Arab Knesset members in the Knesset itself by suggesting that the Palestinian State in the West Bank has to be the Homeland of all the Palestinians from the West Bank, Gaza, the Diaspora and the Arabs in Israel.
Tsipi Livni's statement created a strong reaction among the Arab community. Knesset members, leaders, mayors and Columnists attacked her personally and asked Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to dismiss her form the post. Advocate Gowad Bulus wrote in Haaretz 26/11/2007 that it's the first step in the implementing a transfer policy for the Arabs in Israel and it came from a leading Israeli figure like Tsipi Livni. Bulus who represents Marwan Bargouti is a resident of Kfar Yasif in the Galilee. He argued that the Arab community has to stop reacting to all kinds of Israeli policies. Rather, they have to create a new strategy of facing the deterioration in the Israeli political debate among leaders such as Tsipi Livni, Lieberman and others.
Bulus's is wondering why the Livni declaration didn't create a stormy debate among the Israeli public. He called on Prime Minister Olmert to explain her words and for Livni to apologize. If she does not do it he has to fire her from her post as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Sheikh Raed Salah the Head of the Northern Islamic Movement described Livni's declaration as calling to implement a policy of "Transfer" and changing of the status of the Arabs in Israel from citizens to second class natives without any rights. (Kol Israel 26/11/2007)
Until now, however, only some Israeli columnists have condemned her declaration against the Arabs. Meron Benvenisti argued that both she and Ehud Olmert have begun to return to the hard cure of the Revisionism. Both Olmert and Tsipi Livni are behaving as the Likud right wing princes from the old days by trying to attract right wing Israeli extremists (Haaretz Op Ed 26/11/2007).
It seems that for domestic reasons that Olmert didn't take Livini's comments seriously. In an interview from Annapolis with an Israeli journalist, he refused to react to her declaration against the Arabs.
It's not quite certain whether the Arabs in Israel will react against her or not. What is certain is that as a result of her declaration against the Arab community she has been identified as a radical right minister, closer to Lieberman and Eli Yishai than to the moderate spectrum. Consequently, her colleagues will use this speech to neutralize her efforts to be nominated as Prime Minister after Ehud Olmert.
Currently both Livni and Lieberman by using the issue of transferring the Arab community from Israel are neutralizing any possibility of a political solution with the Palestinians in the aftermath of Annapolis. By instigating against the Arabs in Israel Lieberman is using the "Boomerang" to prevent any agreement. By doing that, both Lieberman and Livni are designing the limits of any concessions and are actually determining 80% of Israel's borders. The big question, however, is if Olmert himself ordered such pressures by joining them to his coalition.
The author is a journalist and member of The Arab Council for Foreign Relations.
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