Israel Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, outlined his policy doctrine on Palestine to Italy PM Berlusconi for more than two hour. 
Lieberman suggested a "Cyprus" solution to Palestine, which caught his guests off guard. But Avigdor was subjected to severe criticism, mainly with regard to the subjects of the Settlements and the Humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

Lieberman's Italian Job

Haaretz
By Barak Ravid
May 7, 2009

On Monday evening, a festive dinner was held in the residence of Gideon Meir, Israel's ambassador to Italy, and his wife Amira. The guests included the head of Italy's intelligence services, the parliament's intelligence committee chairman and majority leader, the minister for European affairs, the editor of a leading Italian paper and some Israeli diplomats. The guest of honor at the event was Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who for more than two hours outlined his policy doctrine.

"There is the Munich agreement of 1938, in which the Sudetenland was annexed to Germany," Lieberman said at the outset, referring to the possibility of annexing the Palestinian territories. "That is a bad and unacceptable solution for the Palestinian issue. 
Another possibility is to go in the direction of the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland, but that took hundreds of years [to come about], and we do not have the time."

So what, then, is Lieberman proposing? His model is Cyprus, which since the 1970s has been divided between Turks and Greeks, and has experienced a series of population exchanges. The Greek side is an independent state that enjoys international legitimacy; the Turkish side is an autonomous region that is wholly dependent on Ankara and not recognized by any country aside from Turkey. Is this a realistic solution for the West Bank? Lieberman believes it is.

"Only when that happens will it be possible to formulate a stable political solution," he told his listeners. "Anything else will fail."

In addition to its suspicions, Europe is curious about Lieberman, whose statements have captured headlines on the Continent. But the foreign minister's current junket to four capitals - Rome, Paris, Prague and Berlin - is important to him, too. One of the goals he seeks to achieve is to counter the opposition to him, which he believes he can do by simply explaining his views.

"Do I look like Ivan the Terrible?" he asked his Italian counterpart, Franco Frattini, when they met Monday.

Even though the foreign ministers he met were among the friendliest to Israel, not one of them spared him criticism, mainly with regard to the subjects of the settlements and the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. Lieberman's decision to begin the tour in Italy was a calculated one: With Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister and Frattini as foreign minister, Rome is the friendliest European capital in terms of Israel.

The positions advanced by Berlusconi and the Italian leadership on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict surprised even Lieberman. In his discussion with Berlusconi about a possible "Marshall Plan" for the Palestinian Authority, Lieberman said, "Look what happened until now. Rich countries took the money of poor people and gave it to poor countries, in which the money went to rich people."

Berlusconi's reply took Lieberman aback. "I know that very well," the Italian prime minister said. "Much of the money Europe transferred to the Palestinians went into the accounts of VIPs and into [former Palestinian leader Yasser] Arafat's accounts. That must not happen again."

Lieberman was also pleasantly surprised by what he heard from the speaker of the Italian parliament, Gianfranco Fini. "I think that in light of the waves of immigration, we should also introduce a loyalty oath in Europe," Fini said.

Those present smiled in embarrassment, but Lieberman broke the ice: "You should know that when I said that in Israel, they wanted to hang me."

French restraint 

Less than an hour's flight from Rome, France's leaders received Lieberman with restraint. President Nicolas Sarkozy passed up the chance to meet with the visiting Israeli minister and sent his bureau chief instead, who presented Lieberman with a general "message sheet." The meeting with Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was also very different from the Italian experience. Kouchner, who disagrees with Lieberman on all issues apart from Iran, engaged his guest in a lengthy argument about the political process.

"You must renew the process very soon, on the basis of two states for two peoples, put a complete stop to settlement construction, dismantle the outposts and open the crossings to Gaza," said Kouchner, whose bureau released those remarks to the media quickly, to show that the minister had not given in to Lieberman.

Lieberman did not expect to persuade his European counterparts to come over to his side during his first foray into international politics - which he concluded, so it would seem, without any major confrontations or embarrassing diplomatic gaffes. On the contrary: He expressed his views clearly, even if they were not music to European ears, and had attentive audiences.

"Maybe in the end it will turn out that you are right and I am wrong," Kouchner told him at the end of their meeting.

Within a short time - after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington later this month - the answer will start to become clear.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1083975.html
 
 

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