by Jeff Jacoby - The Boston Globe
April 5, 2009
Avigdor Lieberman, the new Israeli foreign minister
IF AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN'S first speech as Israel's new foreign minister did
nothing else, it certainly vexed the media.
The Associated Press called it a "scathing critique of Mideast peace
efforts" that had diplomats "cringing," while other reports said Lieberman
had "dropped a political bombshell," "sparked an uproar," "repudiated a key
accord," and "reinforced fears." The New York Times pronounced Lieberman's
remarks "blunt and belligerent," describing the foreign minister as a
"hawkish nationalist" who is "not known for diplomacy" and heads an
"ultranationalist" party that is "seen by many as racist." Headlines summed
up Lieberman's debut as an attack on peacemaking: "Lieberman dashes peace
hopes," "Israeli official hits peace efforts," "Lieberman dumps peace deal."
But the headlines were wrong, as anyone can ascertain by reading Lieberman's
short address. Far from disparaging peace, Israel's new foreign minister
called for pursuing it with the respect and realism it deserves. And far
from "dumping" agreements entered into by his predecessors, he explicitly
committed himself to upholding the Roadmap -- a step-by-step blueprint to a
"two-state solution" adopted by Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and the
international Quartet (the United States, the United Nations, Russia, and
the European Union) in 2003.
"I voted against the Roadmap," Lieberman acknowledged, but it was "approved
by the Cabinet and endorsed by the Security Council" and is therefore "a
binding resolution and it binds this government as well." However, he
insisted, it must be implemented "exactly as written" and "in full." The
Road Map imposes specific obligations that the Palestinians must meet prior
to achieving statehood -- above all, an unequivocal end to violence,
terrorism, and incitement against the Jewish state -- and Israel will not
agree to waive them in order to negotiate a final settlement.
If Lieberman is as good as his word -- and if he is backed up by Benjamin
Netanyahu, the new prime minister -- we may finally see an end to Israel's
fruitless attempts to buy peace with ever-more-desperate concessions and
retreats. Under Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert, Israel surrendered the entire
Gaza Strip, released hundreds of terrorists from prison, expelled thousands
of Jews from their homes, and even offered to divide Jerusalem with the
Palestinian Authority. "But none of these far-reaching measures have brought
peace," said Lieberman. "To the contrary." The steeper the price Israel has
been willing to pay for peace, the more it has been repaid with violence:
suicide bombings, rocket attack s, kidnapped and murdered soldiers, and wars
with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
It is time, Lieberman is saying, for Israel to stop genuflecting to a
feckless and counterproductive "peace process" and to return instead to the
pre-Oslo policy of deterrence. "The fact that we say the word 'peace' 20
times a day will not bring peace any closer," he noted. It only makes Israel
seem weak and irresolute, encouraging its enemies not to halt their
murderous jihad, but to redouble it. Sixteen years of appeasement have left
Israel more demonized and isolated than ever, the foreign minister observed.
And when was Israel most admired in the world? "After the victory of the Six
Day War," when no one doubted the Jewish state's audacity or resolve.
President Washington: "To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual
means of preserving peace"
"If you want peace, prepare for war," Lieberman declared. That belief may
offend the smart set and leave diplomats "cringing," but Israel's new
foreign minister is scarcely the first to express it. "To be prepared for
war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace," affirmed
President George Washington in his first address to Congress in 1790. Nearly
two centuries later, Ronald Reagan told the world much the same thing.
"Peace is made by the fact of strength," said the leader who would go on to
win the Cold War. "Peace is lost when such strength disappears -- or, just
as bad, is seen by an adversary as disappearing."
Perhaps the world would more clearly understand the nature of Israel's
adversary if the media weren't forever fanning moral outrage at the
Mideast's only bulwark of freedom and democracy.
In recent weeks, the Palestinian Authority has warned Arabs that it is "high
treason" punishable by death to sell homes or property to Jews in Jerusalem;
shut down a Palestinian youth orchestra and arrested its founder because the
ensemble played for a group of elderly Israeli Holocaust survivors; and
celebrated the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel's history -- a PLO bus
hijacking that left 38 civilians dead -- with a TV special extolling the
massacre. On Thursday, after a P alestinian terrorist used an axe to murder
a 13-year-old Jewish boy, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades -- a wing of the
supposedly "moderate" Fatah party -- issued a statement claiming
responsibility.
There is no appeasing such hatred, and demonizing those who say so will not
change that fact. "If you want peace, prepare for war." How refreshing, at
last, to hear an Israeli leader say so.
(Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe.)
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