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Photo: EPA
Avigdor Lieberman. Firmly entrenched on the right of the political map
Photo: EPA

Lieberman is no centrist

Op-ed: Yisrael Beitenu chairman has replaced his politically incorrect 'transfer plan' with what he now calls his comprehensive 'peace plan,' and voila – a pragmatic, centrist, future king is born!

A new party will be running in the US elections. The party, Artzot Habrit Beitenu (the United States is Our Home), has placed the issue of loyalty to America at the heart of its domestic agenda.

 

 

With this in mind, it has made the question of what it sees as the "split personality" of American Jewry and the Jews' dual loyalty to the United States and to Israel a central component of its campaign.

 

The party platform says that the Jews must choose between the two, and to those who are unwilling to forgo their identification with the State of Israel, it is offering economic incentives to encourage them to emigrate to the Jewish homeland.

 

The Anti-Defamation League is finding itself unable to fight the growing support for this party, which is being portrayed by US media as a centrist party that leans neither to the Democratic left nor Republican right and which, according to the polling institutes, has a good chance of not only holding the balance of power in the next elections but may even be able to position its leader for the presidency.

 

A nightmare scenario? Shades of Nuremberg? Unfathomable in a democratic country? Well, substitute Yisrael Beitenu for Artzot Habrit Beitenu and Israeli Arabs for American Jewry and you will see that this is currently the situation right here in "the only democracy in the Middle East."

 

Avigdor Lieberman has changed his rhetoric and now says two states without even a hiccup, but the devil – as the saying goes – is in the details. He has basically replaced what used to be called his politically incorrect "transfer plan" with what he now calls his comprehensive "peace plan," and voila! A pragmatic, centrist, future king is born!

 

All those who have jumped on the "Just Not Bibi!" bandwagon – beware! Lieberman and his racist platform do not represent a centrist alternative; they are firmly entrenched on the right of the political map.

 

Those who simply want to see a different face staring out at the cameras from the Prime Minister’s Office may cast their ballots for anyone but Netanyahu, but those who want to see a change of direction should not be taken in by the spin.

 

Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni have made it perfectly clear that they have no qualms about sitting with Lieberman. Their joint list is – as they themselves claim – slapdab in the center.

 

The equation, therefore, is very simple: A Herzog-Livni-Lieberman coalition adds up to a center-right government. At the same time, Labor and Hatnua have a history that shows how easily they can sink into the comfortable chairs around the cabinet table with the Likud at the helm, so their current anti-Netanyahu campaign is certainly no promise that they won’t answer if the call comes.

 

The voters who long not only to hear the cry "mahapach" on 18 March, but want the word to have true meaning, must cast a ballot that will not morph into something else when the count is in and the coalition talks begin.

 

There is only one party that represents the left in the center-left equation, and that party is Meretz. Those who are clamoring for a center-left government need to do the math.

 

Susie Becher is a member of the Meretz National Executive.

 


פרסום ראשון: 12.25.14, 00:50
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