|
Jan. 18, 2013
Politicians behaving badly
Lieberman is indicted on charges of fraud and breach of trust.
LINDA GRADSTEIN THE MEDIA LINE
After 16 years of investigations, Israel’s state prosecutor indicted Avigdor Lieberman on charges of fraud and breach of trust concerning the appointment of Israel’s ambassador to Latvia in exchange for information about a police investigation against Lieberman.
Lieberman had already resigned as foreign minister although he remains a Knesset member from the rightist Israel Beiteinu (Israel is Our Home) party.
The indictment came just weeks before Israel’s national elections. Lieberman’s party is running in a joint slate with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. Lieberman originally said he hoped for a speedy trial that would prove his innocence and enable him to be appointed a cabinet minister in the next government. Now, that seems unlikely.
The Russian-born Lieberman has been a fixture in Israeli politics for many years. He is known for his blunt – and controversial – statements, such as questioning the loyalty of Arab citizens of Israel. Earlier this month, he also compared the European Union’s failure to condemn Hamas to Europe’s failure to end Nazi genocide during the Second World War. During Lieberman’s tenure, there have also been tensions between U.S. President Barack Obama and Netanyahu.
“There could be better relations between the U.S. and whoever is going to going to be the next foreign minister,” said Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israeli ties. “At the same time, [Lieberman] was completely sidelined from U.S.-Israeli relations, as Netanyahu preferred to be in sole control of this important relationship.”
Gilboa says much will depend on the makeup of the next government. If Netanyahu forms a coalition with centrist parties such as Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah, he could give Livni the foreign affairs portfolio.
“Livni is certainly a good possibility and she has already served as foreign minister,” Gilboa said.
Livni, who is seen as a moderate, could help shore up relations between Obama and Netanyahu.
In the short run, the joint list of Likud and Israel Beiteinu is losing ground. Polls published recently showed them at 33 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, which is 12 less than the two parties currently have in the present Knesset. Most Israeli analysts say those predictions cannot be traced directly to Lieberman, but have more to do with mistakes made by both parties.
“The unification between the two parties was a big mistake,” suggested Tamir Sheafer, head of the department of political communications at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “It is not good for right-wing voters or for centre-right voters. In this case, the whole is smaller than the sum of its parts.”
Sheafer said the current tensions in U.S.-Israeli relations stem more from Israel’s reaction to the Palestinians upgrade at the United Nations to a non-member observer state. In response, Israel announced the building of thousands of new homes on post-1967 land in east Jerusalem and the beginning of construction in an area known as E-1 between east Jerusalem and the Jerusalem suburb of Maaleh Adumim, an area on which Israel had reportedly explicitly promised the United States that it would not build.
Lieberman insists he is innocent. “I did not break any laws at all,” he said in a statement. “I want the matter to be addressed in court as quickly as possible.”
He said that according to Israeli law he did not have to resign as foreign minister but chose to do so. He is permitted to remain a Knesset member unless convicted. If he is convicted of the more serious crime of “moral turpitude,” he would be barred from politics for seven years. Lieberman’s trial could take up to a year. During that time, he will continue to serve in the Knesset and has made it clear he would like the chairmanship of the Knesset foreign relations committee.
Even that conviction, however, is not a death sentence in Israeli politics. In 2000, Aryeh Deri, the head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, was convicted of taking $155,000 in bribes and sentenced to three years in jail. Today, 12 years later, he is poised to return to the Knesset as a Shas Knesset member.
^TOP
|
