Politics Takes a Right Turn in Jerusalem

One of the biggest surprises of Israel's recent election was the success of Avigdor Lieberman's party, Yisrael Beytenu. As Israeli Arabs demonstrated against their government during the recent invasion of Gaza, Lieberman's popularity rose. His fans were attracted by his proposal of a loyalty oath for all Israelis obviously directed at the Arab population. Last week Lieberman sat down for his first foreign interview with NEWSWEEK's Lally Weymouth. Excerpts: (Article continued below...)

Weymouth: You've proposed that the Israeli Arabs in the Wadi Ara [an area inside the 1967 border] be transferred to the Palestinian Authority and that Israeli settlers in other areas be annexed to Israel in a land swap.
Lieberman: The dividing line for Yisrael Beytenu is who supports terror and who fights terror. We cannot accept that there are people in Israel that even during even the war openly supported Hamas.

You're talking about Israeli Arabs?
Of course, but not only Arabs. I'm sorry to say that there were also Jews.

You propose to say these people are no longer Israeli citizens or that they're supposed to go to the Palestinian territories?
First of all, [I propose] to outlaw these parties and these political leaders [who supported Hamas]. Secondly, there must be some kind of national or military service for all Israelis.

We take all our examples from Europe or the United States. For example, the pledge. When I suggested the exact procedure like in the United States for the pledge, everybody here said, "You're a racist, you're a fascist." Why?

It's not mandatory in America. No one's going to kick you out of the country if you don't take it.
I agree with this. We don't have a proposal to kick people out of the country. But I think the country must demand from the citizens real responsibility. It's a crazy thing in Israel that a minister doesn't agree to our anthem. I can't imagine it ... The next point is our relations with the Palestinians. What is [the] reason for so longstanding a conflict? Many people say it's about occupation, settlements, settlers, etc. I think that's a misunderstanding. Before 1967, it was the same. And what was before 1948? It was the same. We have friction between Jews and Arabs.

You went to talk to both Tzipi Livni and Netanyahu. Why did you evaluate Netanyahu as being the better leader?
[The best] solution for us [would have been] a government of the three biggest parties, Likud, Kadima and Yisrael. It will be a stable government that can deal with all the problems from the economy to Iran.

Why couldn't they be combined? Because Livni wanted Netanyahu to agree to a two-state solution?
The key is not two states. Bibi understands that there must be a solution, but the key was rotation [of the job of prime minister].