Mideast: On Target - Afraid of Lieberman?

...not Senator Lieberman, but Avigdor Lieberman, the Soviet refugee to Israel who leads the Yisrael Beitainu Party in Israel, and most recent addition to Prime Minister Olmert's cabinet in Olmert's attempt to save is premiership.

Read the attached article, Mideast: On Target - Afraid of Lieberman?, for an excellent introduction to the changes going on in Israel right now, and how Lieberman's views might be key to driving things forward with the Palestinians, in spite of the handwringing of the politically correct non-thinkers on the Left. If you'd listen to the New York Times and the like, Lieberman is a far rightist who wants to execute Israeli Arab members of parliament (for treason, mind you -- meeting with enemy regimes like Syria during the Lebanon Summer War (i.e., during wartime), passing them intelligence, and encouraging Fifth Column activites by Israel's Arab population during wartime), and who wants to "ethnically cleanse" Israel of its Arabs by recognizing a two-state solution to the Palestinian situation (anything wrong with that?) and trading land held by Jews on the West Bank for Israeli lands held by Arabs in Israel (along with the Arab residents) that are contiguous to the West Bank. A simple, elegant solution, and with precedent -- Israel did a land swap with Jordan when they signed a peace deal in the 90's, and many of those Arab Israelis have shown only animosity to Israel and solidarity with the Palestinians, so it is just for them to join their Palestinian brothers.

As I said in my recent article, "Reuters on Jewish Refugees -- For Israeli-Palestinian Peace, Palestinians Must Get Realistic About their Demand For "Right of Return" To Israel", (you'll need to scroll down towards the bottom if you go to this link) there is a ton of good precedent to population exchanges as the lesser of two evils to accomplishing non-belligerence and security among peoples (it wouldn't be such a bad thing in Iraq right now, for instance).

Keep an eye on Lieberman -- as things get worse in the Palestinian near-civil war and among Israel's Arab population, his ideas may begin to seriously resonate, either alone or as part of a Jordanian confederation solution.