Lieberman: Netanyahu supported failed policies
Yisrael Beiteinu leader attacks PM for supporting Gaza withdrawal and other decisions: 'It wasn't me who supported disengagement, and it wasn't me who evacuated Hebron.'
Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's record at a party convention Tuesday, saying the Likud chairman supported "failed" policies.
"Yisrael Beiteinu has a consistent, solid position," he said. "And the best and clearest example of that is the vote on the disengagement (from Gaza) in 2004. Six current ministers and deputy ministers from Likud voted for the disengagement. In contrast, it never occurred to anyone from Yisrael Beiteinu to support that failure of an idea.
"It wasn't me who supported disengagement, and it wasn't me who evacuated Hebron. The ones who gave away Hebron and evacuated the settlements from Gush Katif were not Yisrael Beiteinu, but Likud," said Lieberman.
During his first term as prime minister, Netanyahu oversaw the Hebron Agreement, signed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in 1997. In accordance with the agreement, the IDF redeployed its forces from Hebron. The government approved the agreement with a majority of 17 against seven objections, and the Knesset approved it with a majority of 87 against 17 objections.
In 2005, the Israeli government headed by Ariel Sharon - still the head of Likud at the time - carried out the plan to disengage from Gaza and from four isolated settlements in the West Bank. Netanyahu supported the government's plan.
"They ask me, 'how dare you say you don't rule out (going with) either Netanyahu or Herzog?'" said Lieberman regarding the upcoming elections. "If I form a government, I promise to invite them both to be a part of it. I have said and say once more: I do not rule them out, or Lapid or Bennett or Gafni or Deri. We must not rule out on a personal level. We did not come here to start rejecting other Jews."
However, he forcibly attacked the other parties' political platforms and behavior. "Up to now we have seen three classic, old, and dated approaches: One from the left, which stumbled and failed. The second approach, 'sit and do nothing', failed as well. And that's what has been happening here since 2009. The third approach, Bennett's approach, that effectively speaks about one state for two peoples between the sea and Jordan, is the most dangerous, a certain failure, and also designed to entangle us and cause damage that cannot be repaired."
Lieberman repeated the view that an agreement with the Palestinians need to be part of an agreement with the Arab world as a whole, and returned to talking about Arab Israelis. "If we don't solve this, the day after a Palestinian state is established we will be dealing with the demand for cultural autonomy in the Galilee and the Negev, that will with time become political autonomy," he said. "These are unpleasant things, but we must put them on the table. You cannot have it both ways: decide, are you Israelis or Palestinians?"
Liberman also said of the corruption scandal implicating at least one prominent party member that "most of the people who are arrested and investigated are not members of Yisrael Beiteinu. Moreover, they have never been members of Yisrael Beiteinu. No Yisrael Beiteinu member has ever been convicted of embezzlement, bribery, or breach of trust. Unlike many people, politicians, including ministers and the most senior MKs from other parties, who have been convicted."
