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Former Israeli minister: Lieberman is Israel’s tragedy
Yossi Beilin
Yossi Beilin, known the architect of the Oslo peace process, has described Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman of the ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party -- the largest coalition partner of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's nationalist Likud -- as “a national tragedy” for his country.
“Lieberman is actually like an elephant in a China shop. Liebermann is very very close to racism. The foreign minister of Israel is our tragedy,” Beilin, a former Israeli justice minister and a leading proponent of the peace process, told Today's Zaman in an exclusive interview. Beilin's remarks came when he was reminded of Lieberman's firm resistance to caving into Turkey's demands for normalization of Israel's bilateral relations with Ankara making it clear on numerous occasions that relations must be normalized by fulfilling the conditions Turkey has set for Israel.
Ankara insists that there will be no progress in Turkish-Israeli ties without an apology from for the deadly Israeli raid of the Mavi Marmara aid ship that left nine Turkish activists dead in international waters. When asked about future of the stalled Middle East peace process, Beilin emphasized that he was not optimistic, saying “Because I don’t believe that the Israeli government and the head of government is ready to pay the price of peace.”
Beilin is a leading promoter of the peace process and serves as the chairman of the “Geneva Initiative,” a non-governmental proposalconcerning a permanent status of agreement between Israel and the Palestinians in 2003.
Contrary to what he said about prospects regarding the Middle East peace process, Beilin sounded rather optimistic when asked the question about rising right-wing tendencies in his country.
“I believe that at the end of the day educated people will vote for the center-left, not the right. And even if today with the tendency there is to support people like Lieberman, I think that in the future people will join the secular majority which believes in peace because this is the only way we can save ourselves,” Beilin said.
Noting that he was “not against” the upcoming UN General Assembly voting on recognition of the statehood of Palestine, Beilin, however, argued that such recognition will not bring about any significant change in regards to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. “When you create a gap between the reality on the ground whereby the Palestinians are having autonomy on 40 percent and theoretical situation whereby you have a state of 100 percent on the West Bank, this gap might be very dangerous. I mean, you have built high expectations, and have nothing,” Beilin said.
But he did not completely rule out the Palestinian position that UN recognition can push Israel to return to negotiation table.
“Maybe I don’t see how, especially with this government, but maybe let us see. But the big question for me is what will happen after the resolution of the UN. And the question is how the Palestinians and the Israelis deal with the matter once it is fact.”
Beilin expressed a “wait and see” policy about the possible effects of the Arab Spring: “It is very premature to know, very premature. We don’t know about the new regimes. We don’t know what will happen. The most important is of course Egypt but we don’t not what parties will win, who will be the president.” “The only thing I can say that the Arab spring is an expression for the importance of public opinion in the Arab world. Since in the Arab spring public opinion -- the Israeli-Palestinian issue is very high on the agenda -- it might push towards a solution even if more than the leaderships until now. So there might be a change to the world; more urgency towards the need to solve the Israeli Palestinian problem than before,” he added.
Variations of apology
According to Beilin, Israeli and Turkish officials may find a formula on Turkey’s conditions for an apology.
“I mean apology is a title for so many variations. Even if wise people meet with each other and they really want to solve the problem, I’m sure they can do that. I have some sentences in my imagination, which might actually say that we are very sorry for what happened, we never meant to create such a situation, but the fact that people were killed is a fact. We are ready to pay compensation and we understand your anger and whatever,” he said.
“Because their apology means that actually the Israeli army meant to kill people. But it was some kind of a tragedy. In a tragedy everybody is right,” he responded when asked why it was so difficult for Israel to offer an apology for the killings of the civilians.
About Beilin
Having established himself as one of Israel’s foremost thinkers on the issue of Jewish continuity and relations between Israel and Diaspora Jewry, Beilin was the initiator of the Birthright program (Taglit), which over the years has brought tens of thousands of Jews to Israel. During his time in politics, Beilin held various ministerial positions, including deputy foreign minister, deputy finance minister, minister of economy and planning, minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, minister for religious affairs and minister of justice. He initiated the Oslo peace process and the informal Geneva Peace Accord, and serves now as the Chairman of the “Geneva Initiative.”
Former Israeli minister: Lieberman is Israel
Yossi Beilin
Yossi Beilin, known the architect of the Oslo peace process, has described Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman of the ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party -- the largest coalition partner of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's nationalist Likud -- as “a national tragedy” for his country.
“Lieberman is actually like an elephant in a China shop. Liebermann is very very close to racism. The foreign minister of Israel is our tragedy,” Beilin, a former Israeli justice minister and a leading proponent of the peace process, told Today's Zaman in an exclusive interview. Beilin's remarks came when he was reminded of Lieberman's firm resistance to caving into Turkey's demands for normalization of Israel's bilateral relations with Ankara making it clear on numerous occasions that relations must be normalized by fulfilling the conditions Turkey has set for Israel.
Ankara insists that there will be no progress in Turkish-Israeli ties without an apology from for the deadly Israeli raid of the Mavi Marmara aid ship that left nine Turkish activists dead in international waters. When asked about future of the stalled Middle East peace process, Beilin emphasized that he was not optimistic, saying “Because I don’t believe that the Israeli government and the head of government is ready to pay the price of peace.”
Beilin is a leading promoter of the peace process and serves as the chairman of the “Geneva Initiative,” a non-governmental proposalconcerning a permanent status of agreement between Israel and the Palestinians in 2003.
Contrary to what he said about prospects regarding the Middle East peace process, Beilin sounded rather optimistic when asked the question about rising right-wing tendencies in his country.
“I believe that at the end of the day educated people will vote for the center-left, not the right. And even if today with the tendency there is to support people like Lieberman, I think that in the future people will join the secular majority which believes in peace because this is the only way we can save ourselves,” Beilin said.
Noting that he was “not against” the upcoming UN General Assembly voting on recognition of the statehood of Palestine, Beilin, however, argued that such recognition will not bring about any significant change in regards to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. “When you create a gap between the reality on the ground whereby the Palestinians are having autonomy on 40 percent and theoretical situation whereby you have a state of 100 percent on the West Bank, this gap might be very dangerous. I mean, you have built high expectations, and have nothing,” Beilin said.
But he did not completely rule out the Palestinian position that UN recognition can push Israel to return to negotiation table.
“Maybe I don’t see how, especially with this government, but maybe let us see. But the big question for me is what will happen after the resolution of the UN. And the question is how the Palestinians and the Israelis deal with the matter once it is fact.”
Beilin expressed a “wait and see” policy about the possible effects of the Arab Spring: “It is very premature to know, very premature. We don’t know about the new regimes. We don’t know what will happen. The most important is of course Egypt but we don’t not what parties will win, who will be the president.” “The only thing I can say that the Arab spring is an expression for the importance of public opinion in the Arab world. Since in the Arab spring public opinion -- the Israeli-Palestinian issue is very high on the agenda -- it might push towards a solution even if more than the leaderships until now. So there might be a change to the world; more urgency towards the need to solve the Israeli Palestinian problem than before,” he added.
Variations of apology
According to Beilin, Israeli and Turkish officials may find a formula on Turkey’s conditions for an apology.
“I mean apology is a title for so many variations. Even if wise people meet with each other and they really want to solve the problem, I’m sure they can do that. I have some sentences in my imagination, which might actually say that we are very sorry for what happened, we never meant to create such a situation, but the fact that people were killed is a fact. We are ready to pay compensation and we understand your anger and whatever,” he said.
“Because their apology means that actually the Israeli army meant to kill people. But it was some kind of a tragedy. In a tragedy everybody is right,” he responded when asked why it was so difficult for Israel to offer an apology for the killings of the civilians.
About Beilin
Having established himself as one of Israel’s foremost thinkers on the issue of Jewish continuity and relations between Israel and Diaspora Jewry, Beilin was the initiator of the Birthright program (Taglit), which over the years has brought tens of thousands of Jews to Israel. During his time in politics, Beilin held various ministerial positions, including deputy foreign minister, deputy finance minister, minister of economy and planning, minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, minister for religious affairs and minister of justice. He initiated the Oslo peace process and the informal Geneva Peace Accord, and serves now as the Chairman of the “Geneva Initiative.”
Former Israeli minister: Lieberman is Israel
