Lieberman: 'Land for Peace' is Dead

INN ^ | 2/8/10 | Hillel Fendel

[Nachum]

(IsraelNN.com) Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, head of the Israel Our Home party, says, "It's time to forget our obsession of "territory in exchange for peace; all future agreements must be based on 'peace in exchange for peace.'"

Speaking at a party faction meeting on Monday, Lieberman said, "Peace is in fact our heart's desire, but it is not more important than Israel's existence as the state of the Jewish people or than lasting security for its citizens. We extend our hand in peace to enemies, but as long as they choose the path of war, we must be firm, return battle, and defeat the enemy. We must strive for victory instead of talking about possible compromise, interpreted as weakness by our enemies.

[Eleutheria5]

Yes, all true. But he’s just informed everyone that the emperor is butt nekkid, and perhaps thereby thrown a healthy bucket of cold water on the piece process, that can then melt into the puddle of brown “sugar” (something else that starts with “S”) it always was. Foreign Ministers are not that powerful, but they’re hardly irrelevant, either. It can only be a good thing that he finally said it out loud and in public.

[anotherview]

I’m still not at all sure it’s a good thing. Sometimes it really is helpful for diplomats to be diplomatic. Lieberman isn’t.

[tet68]

Gee Joe, all you had to do was ask any palestinian,
they would have told you that.

[tet68]

Ah, sorry , not joe. My mistake.

[PapaBear3625]

Only the last stand of a handful of Israeli armor kept Syria from sweeping into the Galilee in 1973; without the Golan buffer the State would have been lost.

More to the point, the Golan Heights control an important water source.

[Eleutheria5]

Since Oslo, we’ve had hundreds of civilians killed and two major wars that accomplished absolutely nothing. Diplomats being diplomatic has not worked at all. I don’t know much about high level diplomacy, but I know the difference between peace and piece. Enough already.