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Hagai Segal
Photo: Zoom 77

Lieberman and Rabin legacy

Op-ed: Why is Left upset at Lieberman if Rabin expressed similar sentiments in the past?

This past week, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman charged that certain leftist non-governmental organizations assist terrorists, and Israel’s leftist camp was deeply hurt. “The venom got to his head,” wrote Yossi Sarid, a gentle soul who always respected his political rivals. Meanwhile, Minister Avishay Braverman said it was “an embarrassing moment for the Israeli government.”

 

Elsewhere, television news programs used an “incitement” caption when reporting what Lieberman said. For a moment, the impression that emerged was that Lieberman’s statement was an unprecedented declaration that deviates from the culture of discourse prevalent around here.

 

Well, it doesn’t. Similar statements had been uttered here before. For example, on March 24, 1995 then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was interviewed on Channel 1 and stated that “Likud has become a collaborator of terror groups – Islamic Jihad and Hamas.” Rightists were greatly insulted, yet leftists did not rush to apologize.

 

Shimon Peres told journalists at the time that “the Likud was the one to start adopting an intolerable style.” Meanwhile, Sarid chuckled at the Knesset podium and said that “we are in the midst of a week where the gentle souls amongst us are hurt.”

 

Fighting terror without B’Tselem

Rabin eventually retracted his statements somewhat and explained that while Likud actually does not wish to assist terrorism, this is what ends up happening indirectly. Lieberman can now say the same about leftist groups: They do not intend to assist terror, but sometimes this is what ends up happening.

 

By the way, once upon a time Rabin also said that after we withdraw from Gaza we would be able to fight Hamas “without the High Court and without B’Tselem.” That was a simplistic Rabin expression of the claim that Arab terrorists enlist the help of our human rights groups in one way or another.

 

When an Israeli prime minister argues that it is easier to fight terrorists without B’Tselem, he is in fact saying that the group is indirectly helping them.

 

So why is everyone engaging in this onslaught on Lieberman at this time? What has he said that had not been uttered before?

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 01.14.11, 16:17
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