An interesting article in Slate, “Avigdor Lieberman’s Chutzpah,” by Christopher Hitchens, says that the Israeli right wing leader, Lieberman, who he describes as, “a former bouncer born in former Soviet Moldova,” wants to institute a “loyalty oath” — “not just to the Arab citizens of the state of Israel but to all Jewish members of religious Orthodox sects that do not declare themselves Zionist.”
Hitchens describes the party Lieberman leads, the “Israel Is Our Home” Party, as grotesque and says that this party is now the kingmaker in Israel. He writes, “Now we have to watch the rise of a thug and a demagogue who has called with relish for the execution of elected Arab members of Israel’s parliament if they meet with Hamas, who has demanded the drowning of Palestinian prisoners in the Dead Sea, whose supporters chant ‘Death to the Arabs’ at their rallies, and who has materialized the worst fears of those Arabs who have made the longest-lasting accommodation with the Jewish state.”
Hitchens writes, “He (Lieberman) has changed the whole tone of the argument by deciding to question the presence of Israeli Arabs who, unlike their cousins under occupation, enjoy the right of citizenship and voting as well as the privilege of living under the Israeli flag….Shame on Benjamin Netanyahu if he makes even a temporary alliance with Lieberman.”
