Lieberman: Anyone would be better than Abbas

[vminfla]

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Monday that if there was one immediate and removable obstacle in the road to negotiations with Palestinians it would be Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Lieberman is also sure that Abbas is the worst leader that Israel could ever find itself dealing with.

"He's threatening to give the keys over to someone else? That's no threat, it's a blessing and I hope he finally does it," Lieberman said of Abbas at a Foreign Ministry press briefing. "Any replacement would be better than him. At the moment it is clear that he is only focusing on his own personal agenda."

"He wants to be remembered as the man who founded a Palestinian state and achieved reconciliation among the Palestinians," said Lieberman, adding: "The basic question is, what happens if the Palestinians get independence – who will guarantee that we don't see Qassam rockets fired from Qalqilyah on Ra'anana, Kfar Saba and Herzliya?

"Today there is no doubt that the moment we relinquish responsibility for security, within the year Qassam rockets will be falling on Gush Dan and I can say that with 200% certainty."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4138609,00.html

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. Lieberman is an unbridled disaster.

His threats have caused far more damage and instability for Israel than almost any other error committed in that country.

[vminfla]

10. If you can cite some shortcomings that would be helpful

do you have some specific examples of this unbridled disaster?

[Violet_Crumble]

20. Why? Aren't you aware of any shortcomings Lieberman has?

I don't know how anyone could be unaware...

[vminfla]

21. Lieberman is a straight talker and not cowed by political correctness

those are positive traits, not negative ones.

[Jefferson23]

22. I have not seen many posts here showing support for Lieberman

as you do, good for you for being so open about it.

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Jefferson23]

24. I was speaking only about pro-Israeli supporters .

Perhaps you were too, lol.

[Violet_Crumble]

25. I asked you if yr not aware of any shortcomings. I take it the answer's no?

In which case, I'm going to ask the only supporter of Lieberman I've encountered here at DU the same question that Obie's asked. Why are you here?

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. Lieberman is an idiot.

Didn't he used to say the same about Arafat? He made Arafat into a devil, and the refusal to deal with him CREATED Hamas as Palestinians saw they were never going to get a fair shake and were radicalized. Then, when Hamas was legally elected in Gaza, he refused to acknowledge them as well.

The Israeli right has a predictable pattern. They will NOT deal with ANYONE in authority. The purpose is to keep the Palestinians in a constant roil of uncertainty, while they continue to expropriate Palestinian territory. They know that if any Palestinian leadership is treated as legitimate, the first thing that government would do is demand a withdrawal from the illegal settlements.

[Owlet]

3. Anyone would be better than Lieberman

[LeftishBrit]

4. Well, as Foreign Secretary, anyone would be better than Lieberman!

[Mosby]

5. True, but he's right about Abbas

Abbas will continue to be the unelected leader of the Palestinians until the day he dies.

[azurnoir]

7. Explain to us how Abbas came to be in office? n/t

[Mosby]

8. His term has expired - that changes his status to "unelected".

[azurnoir]

9. so in other words he was elected into office is that right?

but this unelected leader meme has become quite popular with 'some' of late perhaps you should write the the POTUS and remind him of Abbas being an 'unelected' dictator would it be? However it should be noted that elections that were to take place this month were cancelled due to Hamas refusing to allow residents of Gaza to participate so tell us if Abbas had gone through with them would we be now hearing about undemocratic elections or how the PA discriminated against the people of Gaza, no matter anyone familiar with territory knows it would be something but more recently a new development

When rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas agreed to bury the hatchet in Cairo , the reconciliation pact promised two things: New elections by May 2012, and a caretaker government of technocrats to run the Palestinian Authority until then. That was more than five months ago, and ever since the two sides have been jammed up on the question of who should run the interim government. With no resolution in sight, Fatah chief and PA president Mahmoud Abbas is proposing to skip the caretaker part and go straight to elections, senior Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rudeineh tells TIME.

"We're suggesting January, because the law requires 90 days notice," says Abu Rudeineh. He adds that the proposal has been extended to Hamas informally but will not be officially on the table until Abbas meets with Hamas officials, probably early next month in Cairo. Both Abbas and Hamas chief Khaled Mashal will be in Egypt this week, but the Fatah chief, whose titles include chairman of the PLO, says the brief visit will be filled by meetings with the military leaders in Cairo. "I don't have time, only one night," Abbas says in an interview. "Maybe next time, by the beginning of next month."

If Hamas agrees, the stage will be set for an overhaul in Palestinian politics, and with it relations with Israel, the United States and a rapidly changing Middle East. The Palestinian Authority will almost certainly have a new president: Abbas, 76, has repeatedly insisted — to TIME as recently as last week — that he will not run for re-election, and has ordained no successor from the rolls of Fatah, the secular movement that long dominated Palestinian politics but is burdened with a reputation for corruption and incompetence. In fact the only previous time Fatah and Hamas faced off in elections, in January 2006 balloting for the Palestinian legislature, Hamas'surprise victory was regarded in no small part as a protest vote against Fatah's unresponsive reign.

Read more: http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/10/20/exclusive-mahmoud-abbas-will-offer-hamas-elections-in-january-says-aide/#ixzz1bjTaJPcK

eta despite the meme the Time article is trying to push Fatah vs Hamas recent polls have shown that Hamas would suffer a resounding loss to Fatah if elections were to held in the near future which is why Hamas would not allow them

[King_David]

11. So was Mugabe and Ahmadinajet

Kapish?

[azurnoir]

12. oh so Democracy is meaningless ? unless it's the one that elected Netanyahu oh wait.........

and BTW it's spelled capiche

[King_David]

13. a one off election and no more

Is not democracy.

It is not even a controversial topic.

It is called a dictatorship , and that is a fact . It is not like anyone can even think there is an argument there.

kapish ?

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=kapish

(sorry wowwy you did not even get me on that misspell thingy wrawr )

;)

[azurnoir]

14. that is your so called "fact" if the elections had been held under the current situation

then it would have ben as I said or perhaps you could be disappointed because you did not get your much wished for 3 state solution

I mentioned the kapish /capiche thing because I think it silly

[King_David]

15. 3 States a reality not a wish

I wish it were different,but its not.

[azurnoir]

16. aha n/t

[vminfla]

17. 1 state, two failed entities

Mogadishu is under better management than what Hamas offers.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

19. Sadly, I don't think that's true, and will not be surprised to see a worse one in the future. N.T.

[zbdent]

6. Remember when a Dem/Lib would say "Anybody but Bush" and the

media would lap up the Repug saying something like "Oh, that means that a liberal/Dem would vote for Manson/Hitler if he ran"?

Where's the media's "liberally-biased balance" there?

[Jefferson23]

18. EU chides Lieberman over call for Palestinian President Abbas to resign

European Union's Catherine Ashton says Foreign Minister's remarks 'not helpful'; U.S. urges Palestinians, Israel to commit to Quartet peace plan.
By Natasha Mozgovaya and DPA


The European Union's foreign policy chief on Tuesday chastised Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman for complicating the Middle East peace process, a day after he called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to resign.

“The reported remarks of Israel's foreign minister ... are regrettably not helpful to create the environment of trust conducive to negotiations," said a spokeswoman for Catherine Ashton.

"The EU has consistently called for reconciliation behind President Abbas as an important element for reaching a two-state solution," she added.

The comments came one day before international negotiators are to meet separately with Israel and the Palestinians in Jerusalem in a bid to launch a fresh round of Middle East peace negotiations.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/eu-chides-lieberman-over-call-for-palestinian-president-abbas-to-resign-1.391954