Lieberman ‘Speaks Arabic’ « Tikun Olam-תיקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

Lieberman ‘Speaks Arabic’

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Tags: arab, avigdor-lieberman, kapo, knesset

This entry was posted on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 12:36 AM and is filed under Jews & Judaism, Mideast Peace. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

17 Responses to “Lieberman ‘Speaks Arabic’”

Alex Stein says:

February 9, 2009 at 1:03 AM

It’s important to note that Lieberman’s call for an oath of loyalty is supposed to apply to everyone, which is one of the reasons Rav Ovadya turned on him last week (lots of Shas supporters don’t serve in the army).

Personally, I won’t vote for anyone who will sit in a coalition with Lieberman. Narrows my choices somewhat, but what can you do?

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- Richard Silverstein says:
  
  February 9, 2009 at 11:53 PM
  
  Personally, I won’t vote for anyone who will sit in a coalition with Lieberman.
  
  Well done, well said. Yes, it leaves you only Meretz I’d say or Hadash (unlikely knowing yr views).
  
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C. O. says:

February 9, 2009 at 2:36 AM

“Imagine Yisrael Beitenu’s youth wing showing Israeli Arabs that they won’t take shit from anyone by beating a few Arabs to within an inch of their lives or even decapitating one or two particularly uppity ones.”

No decapitations yet, but there is no need to use imagination for the rest. It already happened from time to time. See the attached link (Hebrew) which describes one of these cases. http://www.mako.co.il/news/law/crime/Articles/itemId=6bba45d59171f110VgnVCM100000290c10acRCRD

The interesting thing is to read the talkbacks – there are 16 of them. Only two are decrying the act, and the other 14 are on the spectrum of “the victim probably done something” to “well done! break their bones”

It shows that such incidences are not growing in a void, even after considering the tendency of talkbacks to extremism

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Richard Witty says:

February 9, 2009 at 4:19 AM

A choice of fascism over peace.

All when peace could have been made possible following Oslo (flaws and all).

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DSHARON says:

February 9, 2009 at 10:53 AM

The problem with Lieberman’s message, is that he has not thought it through.

Loyalty is not an unreasonable thing for a nation to demand of its people. However, loyalty is a TWO-way street. Just as the citizens of the state should be loyal to their state, the state EARNS this loyalty by being loyal (i.e. responsive to) its citizens.

Similarly, the Lieberman party name “Israel Beitenu” which on the one hand sounds like an implicit attack on the legitimacy of Arab citizens of Israel, also carries with it the best response to such an attack: as in, “Exactly, Israel beitenu (gam)”

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Cantor Richard Schwartz says:

February 9, 2009 at 10:25 PM

Richard, sorry to hear you sound so out of sorts. I understand your desperation. It’s deeply disappointing to see the values of decency, compassion, and generosity of spirit that we treasure as Jews being buried in our homeland. But I would like to see you lead us with bitachon and emunah. Hevel’s (of Cain and Abel fame) blood will again sing from the earth, life will sprout anew from unexpected sources…

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- Richard Silverstein says:
  
  February 9, 2009 at 11:47 PM
  
  That’s a wonderful thought. At times like these we need a bit of poetry and hope. Thank you for providing it.
  
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Alex Stein says:

February 9, 2009 at 11:55 PM

Richard – you’d be surprised. It also leaves Meimad-Yeruka. Tough choices, and I’m still not sure if abandoning realism is the right way to go. We will see – I’m off to vote now…

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- Richard Silverstein says:
  
  February 10, 2009 at 12:39 AM
  
  Has Meimad said it wouldn’t sit in a gov’t w. Lieberman?
  
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Alex Stein says:

February 10, 2009 at 8:08 AM

Not officially. Either way, though, one has to be a realist – PR is about choosing the lesser evil. I voted Meimad, but was very torn over the whole thing – at the end of the day there is (whatever some might say) a real difference between a government headed by Tzipi and one headed by Livni, whatever the strength of Lieberman. We shall see.

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John Dickerson says:

February 10, 2009 at 10:10 AM

*FROM MR. SILVERSTEIN’S POST: “Imagine Yisrael Beitenu’s youth wing showing Israeli Arabs that they won’t take shit from anyone by beating a few Arabs…”

*AN ISRAELI YOUTH (IVANOV) QUOTED IN A “HAARETZ” ARTICLE OF 02-07-09 ENTITLED “Lieberman’s anti-Arab ideology wins over Israel’s teens” -

“We have a problem: Upper Nazareth is surrounded by minorities. There are lots of incidents with them. Women are scared to walk in the streets, and people are afraid they’ll be stabbed. No one knows what to do about it at this point. There are people who live here and during a war they act as a fifth column. It will only be possible to make peace with them after we make war.”

SOURCE – http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1061910.html

*AN EXCERPT FROM A HAARETZ ARTICLE OF 01/27/09 ENTITLED “Police arrest Jewish teens for allegedly assaulting Arab youth in Galilee”:

An Arab youth from the Galilee village of Majd el-Krum was injured lightly on Monday night after a gang of Jewish teens beat him with sticks while he was walking along the promenade in Tiberias.

Police arrested eight suspects ranging from 14 to 16 years of age who are believed to have taken part in the assault.

The victim, Mohammed Mansur, was rushed to Poriah Hospital near Tiberias, where he was treated for injuries sustained all over his body…..

SOURCE – http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1059164.html

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Suzanne says:

February 10, 2009 at 5:50 PM

the transformation of racism and nationalism into accepted values……

Ugly. Somehow it’s entirely okay to wish all Arabs gone while dreaming of keeping all land won through war as legitimate (“we won they lost” – this is the way it has always been, and it included transfer of populations a matter of course, as something “natural”). But on the other hand it’s NOT okay for Arabs to wish all Jews gone- a double standard of a different sort. The issue of the double standard is about not having to behave any better than the worst instincts on the other side. It goes along with Crazy Eddie.

The are ready to compromise of course, a two state solution, sometime in the future when they learn their lesson.

I think more in Israel harbor this desire to be rid of all Arabs because compromise or the risks involved seem just to scary. All the while the risks of an illusion of maintaining some status quo where israel has the upper hand is wishful thinking and far riskier I think.

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Suzanne says:

February 10, 2009 at 5:56 PM

Sorry- I meant:

They are ready to compromise of course, a two state solution, sometime in the future when they ( the other side) have learned their lesson, in a few generations, not now.

I think more in Israel harbor this desire to be rid of all Arabs because compromise or the risks involved seem just to scary or painful. All the while the risks of an illusion of maintaining some status quo where Israel has the upper hand is wishful thinking and the far greater risk I think.

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Tabres says:

February 10, 2009 at 8:48 PM

The thing that really makes me sad, is that the people who were subjected to this very treatment, of being blamed for all a nations problems, of being mistreated and being called immoral dishonest and untrustworthy are doing the very same thing to another people in there land. The one word that kept coming to mind over and over and over is NAZI. Several of my friends in Israel, both Arab and Jewish are very opposed to this guy. Arabs for obvious reasons, and Jews because they recognized the joke that he is. Its really sad so many people voted for him. :(

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Acai Berri says:

February 11, 2009 at 1:51 PM

Palestinians lost their homes as a result of the 1948 war. An equal number of Jews were kicked out of Arab countries in the years that followed. Why cant anyone say that a population exchange occurred (like between Greece and Turkey in 1921)?

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- Richard Silverstein says:
  
  February 11, 2009 at 5:04 PM
  
  An equal number of Jews were kicked out of Arab countries in the years that followed
  
  This is a bogus historical claim. 700,000 Palestinians were exiled from what is now Israel. Very few Jews were “kicked out” of their native Arab countries. Many left due to Zionist blandishments & fearmongering telling them they would be killed by their neighbors if they didn’t leave. There certainly were some anti-Semitic incidents in some places that induced some Jews to leave. But it was nowhere near 700,000.
  
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Zhu Bajie says:

February 14, 2009 at 4:33 PM

I have a suspicion that Lieberman’s Arabic is about the same as Blackadder’s Swahili.

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