Getting Rid of Avigdor Lieberman

Last week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he replace ultra right-wing Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and then compared him to the anti-immigrant French politician, Jean-Marie Le Pen.

"You must get rid of this person," Haaretz and Ynet quoted Sarkozy as telling Netanyahu.

Netanyahu's office defended Lieberman saying that Lieberman is "fully committed to peace and security" and was "an important member of the elected government of the democratic State of Israel."

It's no secret that Lieberman is nuts, a fraud and ultimately kind of a jackass. You can get a taste of that here, here, here and here.

Oh, and let's not forget how he suggested bombing the Suez Canal, making him still unwelcome in Egypt--the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel.

But never mind what all these "outsiders" are saying. The clearest, most succinct critique yet is coming from within Israel in today's Haaretz ("Sarkozy is Right").

At present Israel does not have a functioning foreign minister. The international community refuses to speak to a politician who is considered racist in the wake of the campaign conducted by his party, Yisrael Beiteinu, against Arab citizens during the recent Knesset election campaign. There is not and cannot be any other way to interpret Sarkozy's comparison between Lieberman and far-right French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen.

And in the U.S.:

When Lieberman was recently invited to Washington, the U.S. administration expressed its dissatisfaction with him by demonstrating a preferential attitude toward Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who was invited to meet with President Barack Obama. Lieberman's predecessors in the Foreign Ministry, Tzipi Livni (Kadima) and Silvan Shalom (Likud), were also invited to such meetings with the president during their visits to Washington. He was not.

And when it comes to Russia and the Palestinians:

Lieberman's bizarre attempt to offer an alternative diplomatic policy, whose main feature is a strengthening of strategic cooperation with Russia as a counterweight to the Obama administration, collapsed embarrassingly right from the start. Before inviting Lieberman to Moscow, the Russians sent their foreign minister to a meeting with Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshal.

If Netanyahu keeps Lieberman in place, I guess we know what his commitment is to the international community and what his plans are for the Palestinians.

Read the full editorial in Haaretz here.