Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's Shame

Imagine a country that appoints
someone who has been found guilty of striking a 12-year-old boy to be
its foreign minister. The person in question is also under
investigation for money-laundering, fraud and breach of trust; in
addition, he was a bona fide member of an outlawed racist party and
currently leads a political party that espouses fascist ideas. On top
of all this, he does not even reside in the country he has been chosen
to represent.

Even though such a portrayal may appear completely outlandish, Israel's new foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, actually fits the above depiction to the letter.

• In 2001, following his own confession, Lieberman was found guilty
  of beating a 12-year-old boy. As part of a plea bargain, Lieberman was
  fined 17,500 shekels and had to promise never to hit young children
  again.
• In 2004, Lieberman's 21-year-old daughter Michal set up a consulting firm, which received 11m shekels
  from anonymous overseas sources. Lieberman, according to the police,
  received more than a 2.1m-shekel salary from the company for two years
  of employment. In addition, according to an investigation by Haaretz,
  he allegedly received additional severance pay
  - amounting to hundreds of thousands of shekels - in 2006 and 2007,
  while he was minister of strategic affairs and deputy prime minister.
  According to Israeli law, this is illegal.
• Lieberman is an ex-member of Meir Kahane's party, Kach,
  which was outlawed due to its blatantly racist platform. Moreover, his
  views towards Arabs do not appear to have changed over the years. In
  2003, when reacting to a commitment made by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
  to give amnesty to approximately 350 Palestinian prisoners, Lieberman
  declared that, as minister of transport, he would be more than happy to
  provide buses to take the prisoners to the sea and drown them there.
• In January 2009, during Israel's war on Gaza, Lieberman argued that
  Israel "must continue to fight Hamas just like the United States did
  with the Japanese in the second world war. Then, too, the occupation of
  the country was unnecessary." He was referring to the two atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
• Lieberman does not live in Israel according to its internationally recognised borders, but rather in an illegal settlement called Nokdim.
  Legally speaking, this would be like US Secretary of State Hillary
  Clinton residing in Mexico and UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband
  living on the Canary Islands.

And yet, despite these
egregious transgressions, newly-elected Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu has no qualms about appointing Lieberman to represent Israel
in the international arena. Netanyahu's lust for power has led him to
choose a man who actually poses a serious threat to Israel. Both
Lieberman's message and style are not only violent, but have clear
proto-fascist elements; and, as Israeli commentators have already
intimated, he is extremely dangerous.

Politics being
politics, most western leaders will no doubt adopt a conciliatory
position towards Lieberman, and agree to meet and discuss issues
relating to foreign policy with him. Such a position can certainly be
justified on the basis of Lieberman's democratic election; however much
one may dislike his views, he is now the representative of the Israeli
people. Those who decide to meet him can also claim that ongoing
diplomacy and dialogue lead to the internalisation of international
norms and thus moderate extremism.

These justifications carry
weight. However, western leaders will also have to take into account
that the decision to meet Lieberman will immediately be associated with
the ban on Hamas, at least among people in the Middle East.
In January 2006, Hamas won a landslide victory in elections that were
no less democratic than the recent elections in Israel. While Hamas is,
in many respects, an extremist political party that espouses violence,
its politicians are representatives of the Palestinian people and are
seen as struggling for liberation and self-determination.

If
western leaders want to be conceived as credible, they must change
their policy and meet with Hamas as well. Otherwise, their decision to
meet Lieberman will be rightly perceived as hypocritical and
duplicitous, and the pervasive perception in the region - that the
United States and Europe are biased in Israel's favour - will only be
strengthened.