ISRAEL WARNS PALESTINIANS ALL DEALS ARE OFF IF UN VOTE GOES AHEAD

Catherine Ashton and Avigdor Lieberman prior to their meeting in Jerusalem.

Photograph: Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty Images

 

Foreign minister says past deals such as the Oslo accord will be threatened by efforts towards UN recognition of Palestinian state

Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem

guardian.co.uk,

17 June 2011

Israel will renounce past agreements made with the Palestinians if they press ahead with unilateral plans to seek recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN, foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman has said.

Lieberman told the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, in Jerusalem:

"A move like that will be a violation of all the agreements that were signed until today. Israel will no longer be committed to the agreements signed with the Palestinians in the past 18 years."

Noor: Has Israel honoured ANY of its agreements with Palestine? What a pompous and ridiculous statement from this thuggish criminal loose cannon of a Russian Jew!

The principal agreement referred to is the Oslo accords, signed in September 1993, under which the Palestinian Authority (PA) was created with responsibility for administering parts of the West Bank and Gaza.

Noor: The West Bank is consistently being chipped away at by the settlements, the creations of these settlements, the genocidal actions of the mad settlers, the starvation and denial of basic needs for the indigenous Palestinians. The PA is Israel’s lapdog. People are murdered with regularity for no reason at all or for peaceful demonstrations.

Lieberman's comments further raise the stakes in the run up to the UN general assembly in September, at which a majority of the 192 countries are expected to back a Palestinian state. Israel and the US are fiercely opposed to such a move and pressure is being applied to the Palestinians to abandon their approach.

Ashton is visiting Jerusalem and the West Bank in an attempt to break the impasse in negotiations between the two sides. Talks collapsed last September after Israel refused to extend a temporary and partial freeze on settlement construction. 

Noor: Ah yes, their compliance with the agreements set up with the Palestinians in the Oslo Accord. How well they honour their promises!

 In May Barack Obama publicly backed the creation of a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders, with agreed land swaps, as an outcome of talks. The US president's move angered the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, who wants to retain the large settlement blocks in the West Bank. Obama's speech was intended to hold out the prospect of a negotiated alternative to the Palestinians' unilateral plan.

The Israelis say they are ready to resume negotiations on the basis of the Palestinians recognizing Israel as a Jewish state. The Palestinians reject this on the grounds it pre-empts talks on the right of return of Palestinian refugees.

Lieberman, a hawkish member of the Israeli coalition government, said on Friday:

"In light of [PA President Mahmoud] Abbas's current stance, the chances for negotiations are zero ... Israel is prepared to renew negotiations. The ball is in the Palestinians' court."

Noor: Impossible concessions for the Palestinians but they will shoulder the blame because Israel lies to the world saying they are following the rules and make the Palestinian attitudes seem to be problematic.

Israel has launched a global campaign through its embassies against the Palestinian move to garner support for its state ahead of the UN meeting. It is particularly worried about the position of European countries.

David Cameron indicated to Netanyahu in London last month that Britain might back a Palestinian state if there was no substantial progress in negotiations.

Germany and Italy have said they will oppose the Palestinians' move. France's position is thought to be similar to the UK's although it is trying to broker a peace conference as an alternative.

Noor: France is an Israeli satellite run by Zionists. England is not much better. Nor are America and Canada who will undoubtedly back Israel as they always do, no matter the crime.

The US is expected to vote against the Palestinian move, and to use its veto in the UN Security Council over a Palestinian application for membership of the UN. It is applying pressure on Abbas and his officials to rethink their strategy.

However, Palestinian negotiator Muhammad Shtayeh told journalists on Thursday that the Palestinian Authority would press ahead with seeking recognition and membership of the UN regardless of whether talk resume.

"We are by all means going to the United Nations, whether there are negotiations or no negotiations," he said. "We think that is not either/or. We think that going to the United Nations and negotiations can go hand in hand and they are complementary to each other."

Both the Palestinians and the Israelis were focusing on the stance of European countries, he said.

"For us and the Israelis the battle is over Europe because the issue is not how many states, the issue is also quality states, with all respect to everybody," he said.

A spokesman for Ashton said:

"It is more urgent than ever to engage in meaningful negotiations and move the peace process forward ... What is needed is a clear reference framework to allow both sides to return to the negotiating table."

Ashton had called for a new meeting of the Middle East quartet, comprising the EU, US, Russia and the UN, to discuss the issues, he added.

If the Palestinian Authority was dismantled Israel would be obliged under international law to assume full responsibility for the administration of all the territory it has occupied since 1967.

Meanwhile the Turkish humanitarian organization IHH has announced it is pulling out of the flotilla of ships taking aid to Gaza later this month after the Turkish authorities refused to give permission for the Mavi Marmara to sail.

Nine Turkish activists were killed on board the Mavi Marmara a year ago when Israeli commandos stormed on board in an attempt to prevent it breaching Israel's sea embargo around Gaza.

Other organizations participating in this year's flotilla have said they will go ahead without the IHH.

A senior Israeli military official has said the navy will stop the flotilla, using force if necessary.

INDICTMENT CHARGES THAT ISRAELI FM LIEBERMAN MADE MILLIONS IN ILLEGAL BUSINESS DEALS

LIEBERMAN SUSPECTED 

OF CONCEALING ENTERPRISES FROM AUTHORITIES 

Lieberman's "rising star" just might take a hit,

but it is unlikely since he is the darling of Israel, 

corruption unlimited.

FIRST AND FOREMOST FROM THE STATE COMPTROLLER,

DURING HIS TENURE AS INFRASTRUCTURE MINISTER.

Haaretz
May 31, 2011

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman set up a company in the Virgin Islands in 2001, while he was serving as infrastructure minister, according to new details of the draft indictment against him that have been obtained by Haaretz.

The draft accuses Lieberman of continuing to run a worldwide business enterprise that brought in millions, including from people with business interests in Israel, while he was serving as a minister and Knesset member. He also allegedly concealed this enterprise from the relevant authorities, first and foremost the state comptroller.

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein will hold a hearing for Lieberman in the coming months, after which he will make a final decision on whether to indict. Lieberman recently beefed up his legal team in preparation, hiring attorneys Yaron Kosteliz and Giora Adereth.

The tentative charges include fraud, breach of trust, aggravated fraud, money laundering and witness tampering.

Prosecutors are also considering indicting Lieberman’s daughter Michal, his long-time attorney Yoav Many and his aide, Sharon Shalom. Many is suspected of fraud, breach of trust and aggravated fraud, while Shalom and Michal Lieberman are suspected of money laundering and abetting fraud and breach of trust.

In late 1997, Lieberman resigned as director general of the Prime Minister’s Office and began a business career. He set up two companies ~ Nativ el Hamizrach (“Path to the East” ) in Israel and a similarly named firm in Cyprus ~ whose activities included commerce in wood in various countries, including Israel.

In 1999, he was elected to the Knesset. But hundreds of thousands of dollars continued to flow into his companies from various businessmen, including those with interests in Israel. In 2000, for instance, the Cypriot firm received $100,000 from an Austrian company owned by Martin Schlaff – who, inter alia, was part owner of the Jericho casino ~ and $500,000 from Schlaff’s partner, Austrian businessman Robert Nowikovsky. The latter also posted a $1 million bank guarantee for Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party in 1999.

In 2001, Schlaff paid $650,000 to the Cypriot company. In March of that year, Lieberman became infrastructure minister in Ariel Sharon’s government.

Shortly thereafter, he reported to the State Comptroller’s Office that he had sold the Cypriot company to a close friend, businessman Joseph Schuldiner of Antwerp, for $610,000. (Schuldiner died in 2006.) But prosecutors say this sale was fictitious, and in reality, Lieberman continued to control the company.

Lieberman also informed the comptroller that he had sold another Cypriot company, Mountain View, one day after his appointment. But this sale, too, was fictitious, prosecutors say: The new owner was merely a front for Lieberman’s continued control.

In May 2001, a company controlled by Israeli businessman Michael Chernoy, a close friend of Lieberman’s, paid $500,000 to Mountain View. Prosecutors say Lieberman then used his government posts to try to restore Chernoy’s Israeli passport, which he had been stripped of in 1999, and to assist him in other personal matters.

Officially, Chernoy lost his passport because he hadn’t been in Israel long enough to have one. But police were also investigating suspicions that he lied on his immigration application by concealing his involvement in various serious crimes ~ suspicions that led the Interior Ministry to announce in 2004 that it was might strip him of citizenship altogether.

Ultimately, Chernoy got his passport back ~ for one year only ~ by petitioning the High Court of Justice in 2007. The Interior Ministry has since repeatedly renewed it.

Even as Lieberman reported having sold his Cypriot companies in 2001, he and Many were setting up a new company, named Mayflower Capital Premier, in the Virgin Islands that same year. To conceal Lieberman’s absolute control over the company, prosecutors say, it was registered as being held in trust by another firm controlled by Lieberman’s former driver and close associate, Igor Schneider.

In 2002-08, the company’s revenues exceeded $6 million. During most of that time, Lieberman held various public positions.

In July 2003, while Lieberman was serving as transportation minister in Sharon’s government, Mayflower received $500,000 from a firm controlled by Lieberman’s friend Dan Gertler, an Israeli diamond merchant based in Congo. The money was said to be payment for mediating a sale of sugar.

In reality, prosecutors say, it was made for other purposes entirely, though the draft doesn’t specify what.

That same summer, Mayflower was paid $3.5 million for a single transaction. A few days later, it paid out $2.5 million to another Virgin Islands company then owned by Lieberman’s friend Schuldiner ~ the man to whom he sold the Cypriot company in 2001.

In 2007, while Lieberman was strategic affairs minister, Mayflower received several payments totaling $230,000 from a company controlled by another Lieberman friend, Moldovan Jewish businessman Daniel Gittenstein. A year later, it received $455,000 from another company controlled by Gittenstein.

From July 2004 to April 2006, Lieberman was out of the Knesset and back in business. During that time, his daughter Michal set up the company M.L. Lieberman. She and Lieberman’s aide, Sharon Shalom, were the signatories on its bank account; they also signed documents listing the company as the account’s sole beneficiary and themselves as the firm’s owners. In reality, prosecutors say, Lieberman controlled the company and benefited from the millions it earned even after he returned to the Knesset and cabinet.

Until early 2008, including during the period when Lieberman was an MK and strategic affairs minister, M.L. Lieberman received monthly payments of $65,000 from another company controlled by Gittenstein. These payments were listed as consultancy fees, but prosecutors, again without elaborating, say they were no such thing.

Altogether, M.L. Lieberman had revenues of $2.8 million, including over $1 million earned while Lieberman was in government. Prosecutors say most of this money went to Lieberman himself, funding his expenses, a secretary and driver, security and trips overseas during the almost two years he spent working for the company.

Police began investigating Lieberman’s business activities in 2006. One person they questioned was Andy Boiangiu, who served as CEO of Nativ el Hamizrach in 1998-2001.

In 2007, prosecutors say, Lieberman asked the company’s secretary, Yelena Weinstein, to set up a meeting for herself with Boiangiu while concealing the fact that Lieberman was behind it. Lieberman then allegedly came to the meeting in Weinstein’s place and discussed the police investigation with him – which prosecutors say constituted witness tampering.

In 2008, then-ambassador to Belarus Ze’ev Ben Aryeh allegedly told Lieberman about a police request to the Belarusian authorities for information on one of Lieberman’s alleged companies. The following year, Lieberman, now foreign minister, made Ben Aryeh his diplomatic adviser.

Lieberman’s media adviser, Tzachi Moshe, responded: “We believe that after he hears Minister Lieberman’s positions, the attorney general will decide there are no grounds for indicting Minister Lieberman. The only suitable and proper place for addressing these allegations is naturally before the attorney general, not in the media. We will only say we believe that just as the suspicions of bribery were dropped, the same will happen with the rest of the suspicions raised against Minister Lieberman over the last 15 years.”

LIEBERMAN HEADS TO GERMANY IN BID TO BLOCK GAZA FLOTILLA

Once again the sweet nature of Israel is being tested. If there is one thing this little ole nation worries about constantly is its public image. They don’t realllly give a damn at what people think as much as how negative thinking could harm Israel proper.  This was a painful lesson for them to learn during Operation Cast Lead. There was no spin that could compete with the tortured images of Gaza  women and children; in the long run, Israel lost that publicity campaign.

Then came the Mavri Marmara and the world began to take note and came to the conclusion something was indeed wrong here ~ another publicity debacle for Israel.

Now, another flotilla’s mission to Gaza is imminent and Israel, caught between the proverbial rock and hard place, is rightfully feeling skittish. So Avignor Lieberman, rabid Zionist and thug, is begging Germany to do something about it.

Perhaps Israel should “get it” that the only way to end this “bad press” would be to just change their behavior to the Palestinians and their supporters. But we know that won’t happen.

 Uprooted Palestinians

April 6, 2011

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman headed out to Germany on Wednesday for an official visit calling for European action to thwart the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla 2 due to travel to the Gaza Strip mid-May to break Israel's economic siege on the region.

Lieberman is set to meet with his German and Italian counterparts Guido Westerwelle and Franco Frattini, respectively, as they are both present in the capital Berlin, and would like to emphasize the need for western countries to stop naval rescue missions to the Gaza Strip, Israeli Radio reported.

The move comes as Israel has increased contacts with high-profile officials with intent to thwart the new convoy.

Israeli military attacked the first convoy during an effort to bust the siege last May and killed nine activists and injuring scores more. The attack drew heavy criticism against Israel.

Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have planned to tour Europe to hold talks with officials about ways to hamper the convoy.

According to Israeli Radio, Netanyahu is set to travel Wednesday to talk with officials in Germany and the Czech Republic to urge officials to help block the ship, claiming its organizers were motivated by political and not humanitarian purposes.

Peres will also resume his tour of Europe, as he landed last week in Switzerland and the UK before going to the US, where he currently stays.

INTERIM FOREVER!

Ramallah OnLine

By Uri Avnery,

1 Jan 2011

“I HAVE three answers,” the Jew told the rabbi when his neighbor sued him for not returning a borrowed jar.

“First, I never borrowed a jar from him. 

Second, the jar was broken. 

Third, I returned it to him long ago.”

Avigdor Lieberman’s Peace Plan shows a similar kind of logic.

PEACE PLAN? 

Lieberman? Oh yes. Contrary to everything you thought, Lieberman wants peace, indeed is yearning for peace. So much so that he has spent days and nights working out an entire Peace Plan of his own.

This week he summoned Israel’s 170 senior diplomats, the elite of our foreign service, and revealed his thoughts to them. The opinions of the Foreign Minister are of course binding for the diplomats, and from now on they constitute the guiding line for all Israeli diplomatic missions around the world.

But first of all, Lieberman settled accounts with the Turks. They demand an apology from Israel for the killing of nine Turkish activists on the ship that tried to break the Gaza blockade. The Turks also demand that Israel pay indemnities to the bereaved families. They insist that the Israeli soldiers unlawfully attacked the Turkish ship on the high seas and shot the unarmed activists.

“There is no limit to their Chutzpah,” Lieberman thundered. 

Everybody knows that the Turks themselves attacked our soldiers who abseiled innocently from their helicopters and were compelled to shoot in self-defense.

("We need to understand that they want an apology and, of course, we do not want to apologize. We are prepared to express regret as we expressed it over the loss of life," Netanyahu said during an interview on Israel Channel 10. "But what do we want?  We want one thing. We want ~ first of all ~ to protect our soldiers and commanders. They are being accused of war crimes. They could be arrested worldwide. First of all, we want this to stop. And there should be Turkish recognition that Israel did not act maliciously and that IDF soldiers acted out of self-defense."

He continued: "There is still no compromise formula. We are continuing to try, and I think that it is our interest to try to resolve this. I think that public remarks on this issue are not helpful."

The interview came after inflammatory statements from Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who on Sunday called Turkey's continued insistence on an apology from Israel for the incident "beyond rude." Lieberman said that Turkey should apologize to Israel for supporting terrorists.

He was responding to comments made the previous day by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who said that Turkey "has the will to make peace with Israel," but was unable to, since it is "very difficult to establish political will in Israel."

Turkey and Israel began discussing reestablishing ties earlier this month after Turkey sent assistance to Israel in battling the Carmel fire. )

Lieberman knew, of course, that Netanyahu was negotiating with the Turks in order to put an end to the conflict. The Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, and the army chiefs were putting pressure on him to reestablish good relations with Ankara, and especially with the Turkish military ~ relations, they believe, that are of major strategic value for Israel. The Turks on their part know that Israel controls the US Congress and therefore also believe that a compromise would be good for them. Netanyahu’s emissary was looking for a formula that would be short of an apology and yet satisfy Ankara.

Lieberman has put an end to this appeasement. Netanyahu cannot afford to look like a wimp next to his macho Foreign Minister. So he declared that he would never ever apologize.

For Lieberman, that was a major victory.

Netanyahu capitulated.

Barak was humiliated.

The Turks remain enemies.

What more can a Foreign Minister hope for?

BUT LIEBERMAN does not rest on his laurels for a moment. At the same meeting with the select 170 he laid out his great plan, Plan B.

Just a moment. 

If this is Plan B, what is Plan A?

Netanyahu, of course, has no peace plan. His declared position is that the Palestinians must return to direct negotiations without prior conditions, but only after they officially recognize Israel as “the state of the Jewish people” (or, in another version, as a “Jewish and democratic state”.) 

It is clear that the Palestinians cannot be expected to agree to any such prior condition.

So what “Plan A” does Lieberman allude to? 

Not to Netanyahu’s, but to Barack Obama’s. The American president speaks about two states with the border between them based on the 1967 lines and a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem.

On no account, says Lieberman. And, like the Jew who was sued for the jar, he also has his three reasons:

First, we have no partner for peace.

Second, the Israeli government cannot make peace.

Third, peace is no good for us.

WE HAVE no partner for peace, because the Palestinians don’t want peace. Lieberman, the immigrant from Moldavia, knows the Palestinians much better than they know themselves. Therefore he states categorically: 

“Even if we offer the Palestinians Tel Aviv and a withdrawal to the 1947 borders, they will find a reason not to sign a peace treaty.” (The 1947 borders, fixed by the United Nations, gave Israel 55% of the country, while the 1949-1967 borders left Israel with 78%.)

True, this matter could be settled easily: Israel could enter negotiations and offer a peace plan within the parameters set by President Bill Clinton and adopted by Barack Obama. If the Palestinians refuse, we would not lose anything and they would be shamed before the whole world.

Lieberman, so it seems, did not overlook such a possibility, and so he has prepared an alternative argument: we cannot negotiate with the Palestinians because they have no legitimate leadership.

Why not legitimate? Here Lieberman is revealed as the principled democrat he is. Mahmoud Abbas’ term of office has expired. The Palestinian Authority has held no new elections. Can one demand of Israel, the beacon of democracy in the Middle East, to make peace with a leadership that has not been lawfully elected?

Clearly, that is unthinkable. Israel will not betray its sacred principles. A committed democrat like Lieberman can not and will not agree to that.
.

True, the great majority of the Palestinian people agree that Abbas should conduct the negotiations. Even Hamas recently declared (not for the first time) that if Abbas reaches a peace agreement, and if this is confirmed by the Palestinian people in a referendum, Hamas would accept it, even though this would be contrary to its principles.

But this does not interest Lieberman. He will not compromise himself by negotiating with an administration whose democratic credentials are in doubt.

THIS IS NOT so important, because, according to Lieberman, Israel itself cannot make peace.

Quite simply, “there are sharp differences of opinion within the coalition”. As he puts it: “I don’t think that it is possible to achieve a common denominator between Eli Yishai and Ehud Barak, or between me and Dan Meridor, or even in Likud between Benny Begin and Michael Eitan (Meridor, Begin and Eitan are all ministers without portfolio) ~ In the present political circumstances, it is impossible for us to present a plan for a permanent settlement, because the coalition would simply not survive.”

For Lieberman, as for Netanyahu, the continued existence of the present coalition is clearly more important than reaching a “permanent settlement”. True, one could easily set up an alternative coalition, based on Likud, Kadima and Labor, but for Lieberman ~ and, so it seems, for Netanyahu, too ~ this possibility is not worth considering.

THE CONCLUSION, according to Lieberman: peace is not possible, not now, not for the coming decades.

But, fortunately, he has an alternative that is much better than a final peace agreement.

It is called “Long-Term Interim Agreement”.

This week, Lieberman leaked its basics: 

“A significant increase in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority in the areas of security and the economy. The aim of the Plan is to stabilize even more the situation in the West Bank and increase the security cooperation with the Palestinian Authority in order to give the Palestinians more security responsibilities for what’s happening on the ground.”

So, it is possible after all to cooperate with the illegitimate regime of Mahmoud Abbas, if he continues to collaborate with the Israel military and Shin Bet to prevent attacks in Israel and the settlements. For this service, he will be paid well: “The Plan will act to strengthen the Palestinian economy significantly by increasing the freedom of movement between the Palestinian towns in the West Bank and providing various economic inducements.”

Meaning: in payment for the services of the Palestinian Authority for Israel’s security, Israel will graciously permit the inhabitants of Nablus to go to Ramallah, and the inhabitants of Bethlehem to reach Hebron. Palestinian workers will continue to build the settlements, whose numbers will increase mightily, and the economic situation will improve.

The Plan also fixes targets: the Palestinian GNP pro capita must reach about 20 thousand dollars (more than ten times its present level). “When the economic situation within the Palestinian Authority is similar to that in Israel, it will be easier to renew the political negotiations and achieve a permanent settlement.”

In other words: the occupation will continue until one of the following happens: either the Palestinian standard of living will reach that of Israel or the Messiah will come ~ whichever happens first. In any case, there is no clear indication that either will happen within the next few decades.

IS THIS the plan of Lieberman only, or of Netanyahu, too?

When asked about the speech of his Foreign Minister, Netanyahu gave an evasive answer. Any minister has the right to say whatever he wants, he said, but only the government’s official policy counts.

Well, first of all, the Foreign Minister is not just “any minister”. The political musings of the deputy Minister of Transportation (if any) may be unimportant, but the Foreign Minister is the international spokesman of the state, the representative of the government abroad.

But Netanyahu continued that if negotiations are resumed and these come up against a brick wall, it is very possible that there will be no choice but to conclude an interim agreement.

In practice, it is Netanyahu himself who is holding up the negotiations, because he refuses to freeze the settlements and he demands that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a “Jewish state”. And even if negotiations were resumed, they would soon come up against a wall, because of our government’s attitude towards East Jerusalem and the borders.

So what remains? Interim forever!

Uri Avnery (Hebrew: אורי אבנרי‎, also transliterated Uri Avneri) is an Israeli writer and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement. A member of the Irgun as a teenager, Avnery sat in the Knesset from 1965–74 and 1979-81.^[1] He was also the owner of HaOlam HaZeh, an Israeli news magazine, from 1950 until it closed in 1993.

• More Articles on RamallahOnline by Uri Avnery or vist Gush-Shalom.org