© Ammar Awad / ReutersAvigdor Lieberman and PM Benjamin Netanyahu
Israel has a new Minister of War... sorry - a new Minister of Defense, to navigate it to safer, calmer waters - or so goes the fairy tale. Actually no, Israel's fairy tale long abandoned any real ambition for peace - at least not with the Palestinians.
Israel's political landscape is changing. So far, I doubt that anyone disagrees. The real question is: changing to what? And more importantly how such change will impact the geopolitical regional balance?
With Avigdor Lieberman now in charge of Israel's military future, a great many Middle Eastern capitals are looking anxiously towards Tel Aviv, trying to assess what new violence neocons might unleash against them.But will it? Seriously now,
Lieberman's appointment might say more about Prime Minister's Benjamin Netanyahu's desire to assert his hold on Israel's future, than it does about any real ambition to beat war drums. At least not yet. Israel only just waged war on Gaza (summer 2014). By Tel Aviv's own cycle of war we can expect another 12 to 18 months of relative peace - emphasis on relative. It is difficult to look on Gaza and the West Bank and not see a people under military occupation. The conflict between Israel and Palestinians dates back to 1948... We are still waiting for any real resolution to take hold. But today is not the day to discuss those issues. Today we are talking about Israel ministerial change.
So yes Lieberman is the
neocon of all neocons,
the darling of the far-right, and a self-professed ultra-nationalist who would like nothing better but to
annihilate what he perceives as a threat to Israel's integrity. A man well known for
"his truculence toward neighboring Arab states, demands for mass
national loyalty oaths at home, and past support for
stripping hundreds of thousands of Israeli Arabs of their citizenship—among other things—have long been seen as putting him beyond the pale,"wrote
Nathan Guttman. Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who also served as defense minister under Netanyahu,
has warned of
"the seeds of fascism" being planted with Lieberman's ascension. Minister Lieberman is a true son of Israel - victory over all, to whatever cost ... all in the name of the greater good, of course.
It was Robert Fisk, the prominent investigative journalist, who, in an article for the
Independent in 2009 wrote: "The Iraqis produced the hateful Saddam ... for reasons of sanity, I leave out the weird ruler of Libya - and now the
Israelis have exalted a man, Avigdor Lieberman, who out-Sharons even Ariel Sharon."
Comment: The NATO block has lost whatever hold on reality it may have had at some point in the distant past. Grushko is right: NATO needs an enemy, and Russia fits the bill. NATO aggression may well result in exactly that. Unfortunately, when push comes to shove, the American-led death cult stands to lose. Russia has been trying to make the crazies see sense, but it looks like the Buck Turgidsons of the world are determined to see the world - and themselves - burn.
Further reading: