THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 95, April 2, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN'S BRILLIANT DEBUT
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
THE NEW ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER'S MAIDEN SPEECH: TOPICS COVERED BY FOREIGN MINISTER AVIGDOR
LIEBERMAN IN HIS SPEECH: THE NEW WORLD ORDER, THE CHANGE NEEDED IN THE FREE WORLD'S INTERNATIONAL
SECURITY PRIORITIES, EGYPTIAN-ISRAELI RELATIONS, THE FUTILITY OF GIVING LIP SERVICE TO WORLD PEACE, SHARING THE
BURDEN OF REAL PEACE, THE ROAD MAP TO PEACE & ITS IMPLEMENTATION, THE MISTAKE OF MAKING CONCESSIONS,
& WHEN ISRAEL WAS AT ITS STRONGEST IN TERMS OF PUBLIC OPINION.
FULL STORY:
Avigdor Lieberman became Foreign Minister of Israel yesterday. He celebrated his inauguration with a maiden speech
that news reports indicate left his listeners grimacing, squirming, and aghast. The BBC, for example, informs us that his
words prompted "his predecessor Tzipi Livni to interrupt and diplomats to shift uncomfortably."
Too bad for them – the speech leaves me elated. Here are some of the topics Lieberman covered in his 1,100-word
stem-winder:
The World Order: The Westphalia order of states is dead, replaced by a modern system that includes states,
semi-states, and irrational international players (e.g., Al-Qa'ida, perhaps Iran).
World Priorities: These must change. The Free World must focus on defeating the countries, forces, and
extremist entities "that are trying to violate it." The real problems are coming from "the direction of Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq" – and not the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Egypt: Lieberman praises Cairo as "a stabilizing factor in the regional system and perhaps even beyond that"
but puts the Mubarak government on notice that he will only go there if his counterpart comes to Jerusalem.
Repeating the Word "Peace": Lieberman poured scorn on prior Israeli governments: "The fact that we say the
word 'peace' twenty times a day will not bring peace any closer."
The Burden of Peace: "I have seen all the proposals made so generously by Ehud Olmert, but I have not seen
any result." Now, things have changed: "the other side also bears responsibility" for peace and must ante up.
The Road Map: The speech's most surprising piece of news is Lieberman's focus on and endorsement of the
Road Map, a 2003 diplomatic initiative he voted against at the time, but which is, as he puts it, "the only document
approved by the Cabinet and by the Security Council." He calls it "a binding resolution" that the new government
must implement. In contrast, he specifically notes that the government is not bound by the Annapolis Accord of 2007
("Neither the Cabinet nor the Knesset ever ratified it").
Implementing the Road Map: Lieberman intends to "act exactly" according to the letter of the Road Map,
including its Tenet and Zinni sub-documents. Then comes one of his two central statements of the speech:
I will never agree to our waiving all the clauses -- I believe there are 48 of them -- and going directly to the last clause,
negotiations on a permanent settlement. No. These concessions do not achieve anything. We will adhere to it to the
letter, exactly as written. Clauses one, two, three, four -- dismantling terrorist organizations, establishing an effective
government, making a profound constitutional change in the Palestinian Authority. We will proceed exactly
according to the clauses. We are also obligated to implement what is required of us in each clause, but so is the other
side. They must implement the document in full.
The Mistake of Making Concessions: He notes the "dramatic steps and far-reaching proposals" of the
Sharon and Olmert governments and then concludes, "But I do not see that [they] brought peace. To the contrary. …
It is precisely when we made all the concessions" that Israel became more isolated, such as at the Durban Conference
in 2001. Then follows his other central statement:
We are also losing ground every day in public opinion. Does anyone think that concessions, and constantly saying
"I am prepared to concede," and using the word "peace" will lead to anything? No, that will just invite pressure, and
more and more wars. "Si vis pacem, para bellum" - if you want peace, prepare for war, be strong.
Israeli Strength: Lieberman concludes with a rousing call to fortitude: "When was Israel at its strongest in
terms of public opinion around the world? After the victory of the Six Day War, not after all the concessions in Oslo
Accords I, II, III, and IV."
COMMENTS:
(1) I have had reservations about Lieberman and still do, but this speech has him off to a great start. Put as briefly as
possible, he announced that "Israel is back."
(2) Given that the formal name of the Road Map is "A Performance-Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State
Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," I confess myself puzzled by the news reports (such as the one headlined
in the Los Angeles Times, "Foreign Minister Says Israel Not Bound to Follow Two-State Path") declaring that
Lieberman has pronounced the end of the two-state solution.
(3) There is much irony in Lieberman now championing the Road Map, an initiative he and many others of his outlook
condemned at the time. For an authoritative discussion at the time of its origins, flaws and implications, see the
analysis by Daniel Mandel, "Four-Part Disharmony: The Quartet Maps Peace."
© Daniel Pipes 2009
Originally Published in Front Page Magazine, April 2, 2009
Republished with the Permission of Daniel Pipes
Reprinted from the Daniel Pipes Mailing List, April 2, 2009
Article URL: http://www.danielpipes.org/article/
6258/avigdor-liebermans-brilliant-debut
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Israel & the Arabs -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Daniel Pipes, a Ph.D. in Islamic History (Harvard University, 1978), is the Founder and Director of the Middle East Forum,
the Founder of Campus Watch, a signatory of the Project for the New American Century, a former board member of the U.S.
Institute of Peace, a former adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Golden Circle supporter of the
U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon, a former member of the U.S. Department of Defense Special Task Force on Terrorism and
Technology, and a former lecturer at the U.S. Naval War College, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the
University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Pipes was the Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute from 1986 to 1993.
Author or co-author of eighteen books, Dr. Pipes is a regular columnist for Front Page Magazine, the New York
Sun, and the Jerusalem Post. His analyses of world trends and of forces and developments in the Middle East
have appeared in numerous North American newspapers, including the Washington Post, the New York Times,
and the Wall Street Journal. He frequently appears on American network television, as well as at universities and
think tanks, to discuss the Middle East, Islam, and the Islamist threat to the U.S.A. and the West. He also has appeared on
BBC and Al Jazeera, and has lectured in approximately twenty-five countries.
Dr. Pipes is a Polish-American Jew whose parents fled Poland in 1939, immigrated to the U.S.A., and assimilated well into
American society and culture. His father is Richard Pipes, an American historian specializing in Russian and Soviet history
and serving as Professor of History at Harvard University from 1950 until his retirement in 1996. During the Cold War, the
worldview of Richard Pipes was strongly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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