Give Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas a choice, Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said this weekend. Either he must abandon his campaign for unilateral United Nations recognition and return to the negotiating table with no preconditions, or Israel will no longer see him as a legitimate partner and will launch a campaign to delegitimize him.
Last week, Lieberman sent a letter to the foreign ministers of the Middle East Quartet (the US, European Union, Russia and the UN) urging them to work to replace Abbas by pressuring the Palestinian Authority to hold long-overdue elections.
Palestinians have reacted sharply to both of these moves, accusing Israel of trying to intervene into the internal affairs of the Palestinian Authority while blaming the Palestinians for Israel’s mistakes.
“He is the foreign minister of Israel and making these statements at a time when Israel is facing the most isolation and international criticism that Israel has ever experienced,” Ghassan Khatib, outgoing Palestinian government spokesman told The Media Line. “He’s trying to shift the blame to the other side in a way that is not convincing anybody.”
Abbas has said he will try to renew the Palestinians’ bid for membership in the UN, which failed almost exactly one year ago. At that time, Abbas appealed to the Security Council despite a warning from the US that it would veto any bid to accept Palestine as a member. This time, Abbas says he will turn to the General Assembly, where a Palestinian victory is assured. While a General Assembly resolution would not grant membership which must follow an enabling resolution from the Security Council, it would still be a propaganda victory for the Palestinians who argue that Israel has stymied their quest for an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. It would also enable the Palestinians to apply for membership in the International Criminal Court (ICC) where they could bring actions against Israeli soldiers and veterans on allegations of war crimes for actions during fighting in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli officials say that Lieberman is responding to recent statements by Abbas concerning Jerusalem. Abbas called for protection for Jerusalem’s Islamic and Christian holy sites, without mentioning any Jewish connection to Jerusalem. Speaking on the anniversary of an attempted arson of the Al-Aqsa mosque, Abbas said the fire, which was set by an Australian in 1969, was “the first (attack) in a series that aimed to demolish the Al-Aqsa mosque to make way to build the (third) Temple.”
“This is what I would say to the Palestinians,” responded a senior Israeli official. “If you are offended, if you think the foreign minister got it wrong, return to negotiations.” He then continued acerbically, “Let’s be frank here. Just last week the Palestinian president spoke about Jerusalem in a way that was offensive and rehashed statements that are usually in the domain of extremist elements. Palestinians could set the record straight by proving that they are a partner in the peace process.”
This same official also insisted that Lieberman was speaking only for himself and not for Prime Minister Netanyahu.
“His comments reflect his own position – they do not reflect those of the prime minister or the government as a whole.”
Palestinians say they see this position as disingenuous.
“If you look back at the history of this Israeli government, sometimes Lieberman says things that Netanyahu does not say but doesn’t deny or reject,” said former Palestinian spokesman Khatib. ”I think Lieberman speaks for the government.”
In most other countries, the question of whether the foreign minister speaks for the government could not even be asked. But Israel is a parliamentary democracy, meaning voters choose a party rather than a personal candidate. The larger parties, in this case Netanyahu’s Likud, must cobble together a majority of 61 votes in Israel’s 120 seat parliament, the Knesset. Lieberman is the head of a party called Yisrael Beitenu, meaning “Israel is our home,” which won 15 seats in the last election, making it Israel’s third-largest party after Likud and the centrist Kadima.
Lieberman is pushing several laws including demanding a loyalty oath from all citizens in Israel, including Arabs, that have been controversial in Israel and abroad. Because he is not a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, but favors a more hard-line agenda, it is hard to know if his comments are a trial balloon for Netanyahu or an attempt to set the political agenda.
“There is no discipline in the Israeli government because of the coalition structure,” Eytan Gilboa, the head of the School of Communications at Bar Ilan University told The Media Line. “Ministers are leaders of their own parties and they feel free to say whatever is on their mind. In the case of Lieberman, this is more serious because he is the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Usually, the ruling party keeps this job. Lieberman feels, though, that he can voice his own opinions without coordination or consultation with the government.”
Gilboa says that many world leaders know that this is the case in Israel and therefore do not pay any attention to Lieberman’s statements.
“This is highly problematic,” he said. “A foreign minister represents the government and the state and not only himself or his own party.”
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