The US Administration refuses to meet Israel's Foreign Minister...but not with terrorists and dictators.

"I said early in this campaign I would meet not just with our friends, but with our enemies. Not just with those we like, but those that we don't...Senator Clinton said, 'oh no, that'd be naive, that'd be irresponsible.' I said, 'remember what John F. Kennedy said, he said 'you should never negotiate out of fear, but you should never fear to negotiate.'" --Barack Obama, Florence, SC, Jan. 25, 2008.

President Obama is more interested for his administration to meet enemies of the USA, but refuses to allow Secretary of State to meet with Israel's Foreign Minister?

Israel Channel 2 TV reports last night:

The Americans are ignoring Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman

Israel's Foreign Minister is expected to make an official visit in Washington in a few weeks, yet to date no meeting or discussion has been scheduled by the American administration.

US Administration officials referred to Lieberman as a "hostile" force, and continue to refuse the offers of the Israeli foreign minister to meet him. Their excuses range from "Hillary Clinton is out of town", to more more explicit explanations.

"Lieberman is an obstacle to peace, we do not want to be photographed with him and what he stands for," said one senior American officials to Israel Channel 2 TV, in tones usually reserved for terrorist organizations.

It should be noted that the strategic dialogue is conducted with Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, which required the intervention of Prime Minister because [not meeting with the Foreign Minister] was directly impacting the relationship between Israel and the US.

The Foreign Ministry said in response: "Just last week, Lieberman met with senators and talked on the phone with U.S. Secretary of State on a variety of topics. The schedule for the trip will be finalized close to the FM's departure to the United States and will be publicized to the media." (Israel Channel 2 TV)

The US Administration has a problem meeting with Israel's foreign minister.

Other formal individuals they have no problem meeting with have included:

President Obama meeting African dictator Ali Bongo who has ruthlessly plundered billions of dollars from his own country. (source)



President Obama meeting Hugo Chavez (source)



President Obama meeting Gaddafi (source)


The list is endless. It's just unfortunate that the US Administration is ignoring the huge segment of the Israeli population which elected Lieberman, while having no problem meeting with some of the world's worst vermin.


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Something you didn't know about Minister Avigdor Lieberman

Some people surprise you. The other week a friend of mine told me a most unusual story that recently happened to her.

She was waiting at a hitchhiking post to catch a ride home, when a big car stopped to give her a ride.

She got in, and the driver drove her to her town along the way.

They didn't talk during the ride, but she kept glancing at him, thinking to herself that something was very familiar looking about the driver.

It turns out, the driver was none other than Foreign Minister of Israel Avigdor Lieberman, and it was his security guard sitting in the back seat.



Apparently Foreign Minister Lieberman often picks up hitchhikers and drives them home, even going slightly out of his way when it's a nearby town. And he drives the car, not some Knesset driver and not his security guard. I've now heard this from a few people he's given rides to, and if the hitchhikers talk to him, he's happy to talk to them in return.

That's a real mensch in so many ways. That's simply unusual.



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The spirit of the Declaration of Independence

by Lurker

Barak: Willing to vote for loyalty oath only if changes accepted

Defense Minister Barak has announced that if the cabinet does not adopt his proposed changes to the amended Citizenship Law on Sunday, he will vote against the new loyalty oath.
...
Barak, unlike most of the other Labor MKs, has expressed support for the proposed oath of loyalty to Israel as a "Jewish and democratic" state but has asked that the language of the oath be altered to include the phrase "in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence."

I have absolutely no problem with the additional phrase that Barak wants; to the contrary, I enthusiastically support it. Lieberman and the other supporters of the bill should put it in exactly as Barak demands. For one thing, I think they'd be foolish not to do so: If Barak is bluffing, then this is the perfect way to call him on it; and if he isn't bluffing, then Barak's support will provide a refutation of the claim that this is a "right-wing" law. But there is a more fundamental reason for supporting Barak's demand.

Regarding the "spirit of the Declaration of Independence", it is worth noting the following interesting points:

• The Israeli Declaration of Independence presents the books of the Tanakh (Jewish Bible), together with the history of the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael, as central elements underlying our right to live in the the land and to establish a state in it.
  
• The DoI declares that our establishment of the State of Israel was carried out on the basis of our trust in the "Rock of Israel" [צור ישראל].
  
• Contrary to widespread misperception, the DoI does not characterize Israel as a "Jewish and democratic state", but simply as a "Jewish state". The word "democratic" or "democracy" does not appear even once in the entire document. (Check for yourself if you don't believe me.) I once got into an argument with an opinionated leftist about this: When I asserted that the DoI doesn't even mention democracy, he said that I was being "ridiculous", since "everyone knows" that it does, and that I was spouting "right-wing historical revisionism". I responded by immediately bringing up a copy of the text on the web, and challenging him to show me a single occurrence of the word. After failing to do so, he slunk off muttering sheepishly.

(People whose knowlege of Israeli history extends beyond the blind repetion of currently popular ideas and buzzwords will have no problem understanding why "democracy" is not mentioned in the 1948 document: David Ben-Gurion and his Labor Zionist movement were primarily socialists, not democrats. Their core ideology centered around socialist aims such as redistribution of capital, and empowering the "workers" with control over the means of production. For Ben-Gurion and his cohorts, democracy was a distracting side issue at best, and a pesky impediment to their political aims at worst. Israel's modern love affair with what Israelis euphemistically call "democracy" did not come into existence until decades later, when socialist ideology in Israel was crumbling into oblivion.)

Lest anyone misunderstand me, I (as opposed to Ben-Gurion and his ilk) am most certainly an avid supporter of democracy -- true democracy, not the watered-down version practiced in Israel that is polluted with politically-correct leftist totalitarianism. And precisely because Israeli democracy is so watered-down and polluted, I am very concerned about the insidious efforts by Israel's radical leftist media and Supreme Court to use "democracy" as a purported basis for eliminating the Jewish character of the State of Israel. And this is exactly why I am so pleased by Ehud Barak's proposed amendment: By stipulating that immigrants should swear their loyalty to Israel as a "Jewish and democratic state" in the "spirit" of a document that describes Israel as a "Jewish state" only, without even mentioning "democracy", Barak's version of the law gives clear precedence to the state's Jewish character over its "democratic" one. (Probably not what Barak intended, but true nonetheless.)

So if Ehud Barak wants to stipulate that the oath of loyalty to the State of Israel should be "in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence", then I am definitely 100% in favor. That is the very spirit that I support and believe in.

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