Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week announced the elevation far-right politician Avigdor Lieberman to the role of Defence Minister – widely considered the second most important role in the Israeli cabinet.
The appointment of the politician, described as an ultranationalist in the Israeli press, is part of a political deal to increase Prime Minister Netanyahu’s razor-thin parliamentary majority.
But the Soviet-born minister doesn’t come without baggage.
Mr Lieberman, who lives in an Israeli settlement on the Palestinian side of the green line, has previously spoken of beheading disloyal Arab citizens and drowning Palestinian prisoners. He pushed for a bill to introduce the death penalty for Palestinian terrorists this week – a measure opposed by Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Former Australian Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, says Minister Lieberman’s elevation is a “dismal development.”
“He holds the most extreme of views, little wonder the former Prime Minister, Barak, used the word fascist to describe the new trend-lines in Israeli Politics,” he told SBS. “If [Lieberman’s comments] came from a member of the Palestinian Authority, and were directed at Israelis, the Israel lobby would have publicised them worldwide.”
The former Israeli Defence Minister, Moshe Yaalon, resigned last week and has been harsh on his replacement.
Avigdor Lieberman served as Israel's former Foreign Minister. Source: AAP
“The State of Israel is patient and tolerant toward the weak among it and minorities, but to my great regret, extremist and dangerous elements have overrun Israel as well as the [Mr Netanyahu’s] Likud party,” Yaalon said.
Bob Carr says Israel’s ruling coalition is now “the most right-wing government in Israel’s history."
The US State Department echoed similar concerns, saying the new cabinet “raises legitimate questions” about the future direction of Israeli policy.
Bob Carr says that the promotion of Avigdor Lieberman to Defence Minister signals a dangerous lurch to the right in Israel. Source: AAP
Power politics
Caroline Glick, deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post, told SBS that the new coalition was more to do with power politics than any real shift in government policy. Israel’s parliament is made up of a number of minor parties which Prime Ministers must corral into coalitions to form government.
“Lieberman's decision to join the government doesn't have any significance outside the narrow confines of domestic political wranglings,” she said. “The only reason that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has governed with a narrow 61 seat majority since last year is because of personal clashes with Avigdor Lieberman.”
As recently as April Mr Netanyahu's Likud party belittled the new minister's military service, a spokesperson stated that that only projectile to ever shoot past Lieberman’s ear was a tennis ball.
"Lieberman hates me, he slanders me, he’s a dangerous man, he stops at nothing," Mr Netanyahu said during earlier coalition negotiations.
Now he's been elevated to the second most powerful position in cabinet.
The coalition agreement is the latest development in a notoriously unpredictable political environment, with parties not only dividing left and right, but also across religious, secular, ethnic and nationalist lines. Israeli parties frequently splinter or unite election to election.
Prime Minister Netanyahu is known as a shrewd political operator, having previously formed government with a disparate coalition of center-left, centre-right, orthodox and nationalist parties. When that somewhat ungainly grouping collapsed last year, Mr Netanyahu called for new elections and picked up several seats form parties further to his right.
His new coalition is made up of centrist, right-wing and Jewish orthodox parties. The addition of Mr Lieberman’s party, Yisrael Beiteinu, raises the government's majority from one to six.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) and former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman (left) attend the signing of coalition agreements. Source: EPA
The politics of fear
While extreme to outsiders, Avigdor Lieberman's tough rhetoric is popular with his base of Russian-speaking Jewish immigrants. Security remains a high-profile issue in Israel, with 2015 seeing an increase in small-scale terror attacks known as the “stabbing-intifada.”
The period saw Palestinian and Arab-Israeli attackers kill over 25 Israelis and injure many more in hundreds of stabbings, shootings, bombings and car-ramming attacks. Israeli and international human rights groups have, in turn, accused Israeli soldiers of using unnecessary lethal force on a number of alleged attackers.
“People are fucking scared,” one Jewish Australian with strong family ties to Israel told SBS. “Israel is not an isolated case here, in being a country being motivated by fear.”
Islamist violence around the world was moving otherwise moderate voters to the right, they said. “Hungary’s moving to the right, Italy’s moving to the right, America’s moving to the right – Jesus, look at Trump.”
Colin Rubenstein from the Australia Israel & Jewish Affairs Council told SBS that the political developments in Israel had drawn a mixed reaction from Jewish Australians.
Blood stains the street at the scene of a stabbing attack in Jaffa, a mixed Jewish-Arab part of Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, March 8, 2016. Source: AP
"The reactions here in Australia are similar to those in Israel – ranging from critical to more sanguine – although the underlying sentiment is that Netanyahu is still the dominant player in a now numerically more stable Government,” he said.
JStreet, a more progressive Jewish American organisation, said their members were concerned.
“American Jews overwhelmingly support a two-state solution and champion democratic values. The current Israeli government threatens both of these in Israel, putting the country’s future at risk,” spokesperson Jessica Rodenblum said.
But Mr Rubenstein said the new cabinet, with Mr Lieberman as Defence Minister, should be judged on its performance. Caroline Glick agreed, saying Minister Lieberman faced a tough strategic environment.
"Israel is surrounded on three sides by terror regimes and militias, and its two remaining borders - with Jordan and Egypt - are with regimes that are struggling to survive," she said. "From the outside, Iran is the rising regional hegemon, buffeted and strengthened economically, militarily and politically by the nuclear deal with the US-led West."
A Palestinian protester uses a slingshot to launch stones at Israeli soldiers during clashes with Israeli security forces in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Source: AAP
Impact on the peace process
Former Foreign Minister Bob Carr said the cabinet is bad news for the Israeli Palestinian peace process.
“The tragedy is that the settlements will continue and gobble up the prospect of a two-state solution until Israel is left running a majority Arab population on the West Bank,” he said.
Israel has supported hundreds of thousands of its citizens in moving to fortified communities in Palestine’s West Bank. The settlements are considered illegal under international law.
But Colin Rubenstein told SBS that Israel was not increasing the geographic spread of its settlements, just the population density within existing areas.
"They are not the reason preventing talks," he said. "Palestinians could have the same state today as 10 years ago if they pursued bilateral negotiations, dropped the culture of hatred and rejection, and somehow convinced Hamas to drop its determination to eliminate Israel."
The Palestinian Authority blames Israel for the repeated failure of the talks, claiming the country uses them as a cover to expand settlements.
"The Israelis picked you [Netanyahu] and the Palestinians picked me. I’m a ‘diplomatic terrorist’ - as Lieberman put it - besides that, there’s nothing you can say about me [...] Put it all aside and let's negotiate” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told Hebrew publication Ma’ariv. “If there won’t be peace here, the extremists will take over everywhere.”
The Palestinian Authority is attempting to engage Israel in an internationally mediated negotiation, while Israel has said it is willing to hold direct negotiations between the leaders.
Mr Carr has previously drawn the ire of Israeli-Australian advocacy organisations, referring to his struggles against a powerful "pro-Israel lobby" in his 2014 book, Diary of a Foreign Minister.
The Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council strongly rejected the claims at the time. "Any representative of a community organisation, if they've got something serious to say, they'll get the access," a spokesperson said.
