THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 6, January 7, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation' Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
WHO IS AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN?
By Alan Caruba
ISRAEL, ISRAELI JEWS, & ISRAELI ARABS: THE STATE OF ISRAEL DOOMED BY DEMOGRAPHICS -- THE ARGUMENT
THAT THE RAPIDLY GROWING MUSLIM ARAB POPULATION WITHIN THE BORDERS OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL MAKES
VERY UNLIKELY THE LONGTERM SURVIVAL OF THE JEWISH STATE
FULL STORY:
In mid-December, at the invitation of the Middle East Forum, I attended a luncheon in New York, featured speaker of
which was Avigdor Lieberman, a Deputy Prime Minster of Israel. He wants the Arabs out of Israel. It cannot be done.
Lieberman is staring at the glacial destruction of Israel by demography, the way populations grow or decrease. For Israel,
the numbers do not bode well.
Israel’s Muslim population poses the ultimate threat to its existence. In 1949, there were 110,000 Muslim Arabs, nine
percent of the population. By 2005 there were 1,141,000 Muslim Arabs, sixteen percent of the population. Israeli Arabs are,
as Daniel Pipes, the Middle East specialist, describes them, “a robust, assertive community whose leaders include a
Supreme Court justice, an ambassador, members of the parliament, academics, and entrepreneurs.”
Lieberman is also designated the Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs, a post created for him by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
when Lieberman’s new party won enough seats in the Knesset to make him a power broker. Neither the liberal members of
Olmert’s coalition, nor Israel’s Arab lawmakers were too pleased. Previously, Lieberman had been credited with revitalizing
Likud, enabling Ariel Sharon to become Prime Minister.
For a man with radical views, Lieberman is not an orator, but rather a very soft-spoken fellow. The Jewish power elite of
New York who crowded the spacious 25th. floor conference room of the law firm of Weil Gotshal & Manges appeared to
like everything he had to say, but likely were not considering the impossibility of his proposal.
Lieberman wants Israel’s Arabs to take a loyalty oath or lose voting privileges in national elections and the right to hold
national office, and he wants to expel Arab (i.e. Muslim) politicians from the Knesset, the equivalent of the U.S. Congress
or the British Parliament. Without the loyalty oath, Muslims would become “permanent residents” without the power to
shape or influence the future of Israel.
The irony of this is that Islam has always had a second-class citizen status for infidels. They were called “dhimmi,” subject
to taxes and regulations in ways Muslims were not.
For Lieberman, the issue is loyalty. How long can a Zionist nation, i.e., a nation established by and for Jews, exist with a
growing Muslim population? The answer is that it can’t. Many minority groups would prefer a nation of their own, but
most must settle for integration into a larger population.
The Jewish Diaspora, despite pogroms and centuries of persecution, had survived, but a European-based Zionist
movement in the late 1800s, responding to widespread anti-Semitism, and later the Nazi Holocaust, convinced many Jews
that only a Jewish state would insure continued survival.
Author and former Pentagon strategist, Thomas P.M. Barnett, in a recent blog, responded to a question that asked whether
Israel could survive as a strictly Jewish state. He said that, in an “increasingly globalized world,” this was highly unlikely.
For any nation, “It all boils down to this question:
Can anybody become a full citizen of your state? Or
are they restricted by reasons of race and/or religion?”
This is a particularly thorny issue these days, as Muslim populations continue to grow throughout Europe, Great Britain,
and elsewhere in the world. Many states do put strict conditions on who can become a citizen, but it is doubtful that Israel
could or would pursue Lieberman’s plan.
Lieberman said he believes Arabs would be happier living among other Arabs. This has been demonstrated in Israel when
communities that formerly had large Christian or Jewish populations became predominantly Arab and gave the Christians
or Jews reason to leave. Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, is now nearly bereft of Christians.
Even in Europe today, there are predominantly Muslim areas in cities and towns where non-Muslims are not welcome.
As the arithmetic of demography grinds on, Fatah, Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Islamist groups could achieve their goal
of “eliminating” Israel without firing a shot. They need only wait a generation or so. Exiled from Israel by the Romans in 70
A.D., Jews may suffer this fate again. “The Arabs in Israel will destroy us,” said Lieberman.
Of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Lieberman said:
“It is a dispute about our values. It is not about territory.”
The values in contention are those of the West versus those of the Islamists. The conflict a fight between two incompatiable
cultures
For nearly sixty years, Israel has been a strategic asset in the Middle East, but, as doubts creep in about its ability and
willingness to defend itself, it could lose needed support from the U.S. government. It has none in Europe. Meanwhile,
Palestinian factions continue to kill each other with abandon.
Lieberman said he was hopeful that “a new generation of Palestinians” would hold the key to ending the conflict that has
plagued Israelis before and since 1948 -- when they declared their independence -- because “land for peace doesn’t work.”
That much is true, and it is useful to keep in mind that Israel is half the size of California’s San Bernardino County!
Lieberman dismissed the notion that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had anything to do with other problems in the Middle
East, but the real problem is that the Middle East is ruled by despots and monarchs, and remains the one region that, other
than providing oil, wants to remain detached from the rest of the world. It thrives on oppression, guarantees no human
rights, and has weak economies that provide few jobs and a bleak future for its people.
America’s evangelicals and Christians around the world believe that Israel, populated by Jews, must exist for the return of
Christ Jesus. That hope, like the one Zionists harbor, grows more distant with every passing day.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Israel -- 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 in the Real World
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
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Caruba’s new book, Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy, has been published by Merril Press.
© Alan Caruba 2007
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity