Lieberman: Before regional deal can be reached, Abbas must go
Foreign minister says that after ousting Abbas and Hamas, Palestinians could have free elections 'without terror organizations or Barghouti.'
Foreign Minister and Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman slammed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday, saying he was an obstacle to peace and was "leading diplomatic terrorism," arguing that Abbas must be removed from the diplomatic arena.
Speaking at a conference of Israeli ambassadors in Europe and Asia, Lieberman said it was "important to promote a regional initiative that amalgamates and combines all of the moderate powers in the Middle East."
Israel has been investing quite a lot of resources in promoting such an initiative over the past year, he said.
"This arrangement has to be signed at the same time, as a package deal that if one of the elements is missing - there's no deal. Meaning, if the option is to go with an arrangement only with the Palestinians and discuss the two other components at a later stage, we'll reject that," he explained.
When asked how long it would take to reach such an agreement, Lieberman responded it's possible to reach a strategic breakthrough with Arab countries on a regional arrangement by the end of 2015.
The Yisrael Beiteinu leader asserted that "the conflict is not between Israelis and Palestinians, but between Jews and Arabs. This is how it started over 100 years ago, and this is how it should end. That is why the European Union's pressure on us and their fixation solely on the Palestinian issue will not lead to anything - Tzipi Livni, Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak have already seen that movie and as the song says, 'how this turns out in the end - everyone knows.'"
Lieberman said it's Abbas who stands in the way of such a regional arrangement. "The man is fighting for his personal survival and thinking about his own good, not the good of the Palestinians. When Abbas uses his authority to investigate Yasser Abed Rabbo and Salam Fayyad just because they dared criticize him, it shows once again how 'committed' he is to democratic and Western values... And I'm not going to mention the fact the Palestinian presidential or parliament elections have been postponed for the past 5 years.
"That is why Abbas believes the only way for him to survive, on a personal level, is an escalation in the international arena," Lieberman explained.
He raged against recent Palestinian diplomatic moves. This is "a crossing of all the red lines," the foreign minister said. "The additional attempt to pass a unilateral decision at the Security Council on the establishment of a Palestinian state and joining the ICC, is leaving us no choice but to take determined steps against Abbas. The freezing of money to the Palestinians must not be 'thawed' this time after a short period like in previous instances. This time we need to clarify that the money will be transferred only after Abbas is gone."
The foreign minister insisted that "If we're seriously talking about a diplomatic process we need to first get rid of Abbas in Ramallah and eradicate the Hamas rule in Gaza. Without these two things, all of our efforts are just talk."
After Abbas and Hamas are gone, he said, "we need to immediately approach the Quartet, Egypt and Jordan, and agree on an interim period following which there will be free elections among the Palestinians - without the participation of terror organization like Hamas and Islamic Jihad - that the Americans and Europeans also consider to be terror organizations - and without Marwan Barghouti."
'Cultured Europe's Silence of the Lambs'
Addressing the recent terror attacks in Paris, Lieberman expressed "sadness, shock and solidarity with the French people and the Jewish community there."
"But, to tell you the truth, there was something that really bothered me: This need to be politically correct at any cost and ignore the obvious and difficult facts," he added.
He mentioned "CNN's attempt to ignore the Jewish aspect. They only talked about the incident there and did not mention the fact this was a store owned by Jews and the hostages who were hurt are Jews, and the fact those murdered were murdered because they're Jewish. Most of the conversation, both in the world at large and in France specifically, was about the freedom of expression, radicalism and Islamophobia, but not about anti-Semitism, and that's saddening and very worrying."
Lieberman also pointed an accusatory finger at Turkey. "These same European countries are the ones that remain silent in the face of Erdogan's repeated verbal attacks against Israel, when he calls our country a terror state, contributing to murderous hatred towards Jews in Europe."
He went on to say that "when you're looking for reasons to the discovery of anti-Semitism in Europe, why it's happening and how it's happening, this is one of the reasons. Cultured Europe's 'Silence of the Lambs', a Europe that is politically correct towards a neighborhood bully like Erdogan and his bunch, brings us back to the reality of the 1930s."
He did, however, praise a recent comment made by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, "that he, in my opinion, is the first in Europe that speaks honestly and unhesitatingly about this phenomenon of hatred of Jews in its new form."
He called on the ambassadors "to speak the truth and not be politically correct when it comes to modern anti-Semitism. Your message must be decisive and unequivocal.
