
I’m not sure which saying is more appropriate for this post: there’s (no) honor among thieves; or hell hath no fury like a woman (or politician) scorned.
The Dynamic Duo of Avigdor Lieberman and Danny Ayalon, instead of being like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, appear more like Othello and Iago. No sooner had Avigdor Lieberman announced he was abandoning Danny Ayalon as his deputy foreign minister and number two in Yisrael Beitenu than Ayalon began singing to the Israeli police about Lieberman’s role in the scandal that brought charges against him. In return for information about the status of the case against him, Lieberman promoted an Israeli diplomat to be ambassador to Latvia.
Ayalon, as the good number two he was, knew where the bodies were buried. On the strength of his new testimony, the prosecutor is considering more serious charges against Lieberman. This would mean that there would be no speedy trial as Lieberman had hoped and his legal woes, which have lasted for twelve years, would continue long after the January election.
Today’s latest polls show Likud-Beitenu results dropping drastically at least in part due to Lieberman’s continuing legal predicament. From the current 42 seats both parties have, they are now polling at only 35 seats. Parties even farther to the right are picking up those former Likud voters who are defecting. It would still mean Bibi would form the next government, but it would be a more volatile, more right-leaning coalition.
Unfortunately, the charges that were much more serious and involved bribes worth tens of millions from foreign investors to companies connected to Lieberman and family members, have been dropped. The state prosecutor has done the equivalent of dropping murder charges but charging the murderer with littering for leaving the murder weapon next to the body.
It’s now a choice: deport Lieberman back to Moldova, or mail him to the Hague.
Not to Moldavia. Lieberman moved to Israel at the age of 20. He has lived in Israel now for 34 years. He got his education (army and university) and political “experiences” in Israel. Pretending that Lieberman is a Russian and Moldavian is a bit amusing. The Jewish Israel has made Lieberman that Jewish racist nationalistic extremist he is today, not living his youth as a member of a tiny religious minority in a relative multicultural atheistic environment what Soviet Union was still in 1978 when Lieberman emigrated. Lieberman is a bit more Moldavian than J.F. Kennedy was Irish. Lieberman is pretending to be a Russian because it was/is the easiest way for him to get his political core support among the Israeli Soviet Jews.
The interesting point is what would Lieberman be in Moldavia if he would be deported there. A local “Palestinian” or member of the local racist elite? The right address where Lieberman (and many other Israeli soldiers and politicians) should be sent is Maanweg 174, 2516 AB Den Haag. Nobody who as a minister and MP has publicly advocated the bombing the Aswan Damn should not be allowed to walk free and have some control of hundreds of nukes and a mighty aggressive army.
@Strelnikov: Now you’re talkin’
Just like Bibi’s constituents don’t about his notoriety as a liar as long as his doing it to “the world” (who’s presumed antisemitic), Lieberman’s constituents couldn’t care less about him cheating and manipulating the Israeli system (which they presume to be biased against Russian immigrants).
I may be naive but I just can’t understand how anyone with pending criminal charges against them can run for public office. What is even harder to understand is that the people are OK with this. Thieves are opportunists, and putting them into political office is like giving them the keys to the treasury. And when these thugs rip off the people, they have only themselves to blame.
Jacques Chirac’s re-election comes to mind, but also Arik Sharon, Ehud Olmert and Silvio Berlusconi, to name just a few, were fabulously corrupt yet electable. Lieberman’s own mentor, Russia’s Vladimir Putin is in a league of his own…
How has Vladimir Putin mentored Avigdor Lieberman in the past and nowadays? Do you Yankel claim that Lieberman is a member of FSB (former KGB)? What if Lieberman is Putin’s mentor and Putin is a secret member of Mossad?
By the way Yankel do you know who is considered to be the boss of bosses of Russian Mafias? The man has an “interesting” passport (one of the many he has). Maybe the mentor is …
As to Chirac, Sharon, Olmert, Berlusconi, yes, you are making your point. As to Putin, I have my doubts you have a clue about organized crime in Russia… go back to Yeltsin’s relationship to the Oligarchs, the IMF and the World Bank, and then start again to appreciate the fuller story.
Marion Barry …. but he was unusual. Kwame Kilpatrick had charges against him and ran for mayor of Detroit. But Detroit is a pesthole. But it’s considered a little risky, even here in the USA.