Avigdor Lieberman Quotes
Terrorism attacks Jews, but it targets all countries and Western values. Israel is just an hors d'oeuvre.
This clause has been the cause of immense problems in the Mid-East. Hamas castigates any Palestinian who even suggests that there should be negotiations with Israel that are sincere as nothing less than the end of Israel is consistent with their charter. Anyone who uses the peace process for anything else but tactical advantage and buying time to strike again is a traitor. Meanwhile, the clause is taken be Israel to demonstrate that there is no point to any negotiations so long as the Palestinian Authority allows such an organization with this charter clause to be legal and operate in the open. The Palestinian Authority leadership are not willing to risk a civil war, and thus little or no progress is made.
Language differences and code words of different cultures are not always understood by other cultures. In this case the Sheikh wanted to condemn terrorism which was the official position of the Saudi Arabian government. However, Saudi Arabia, because it contains Mecca the Islamic Holy City, has a preeminent place in the Muslim world has a position of leadership which no other Islamic country has. While people in the West applauded the statement, it had little or no impact in the Muslim world. The reason is that the Arabic word he used for terrorism was a heinous one—a word which Islamic Terrorists (and most other Muslims) believe does not refer to their activities. Terrorism culturally means only acts of violence which are not morally justified. Not only do most Muslim terrorists perceive that they are Morally justified, but most have been given various fatwas (religious legal rulings) that says that their acts are required by God. For example, in a perversity of logic, Hamas—the Palestinian terrorist organization—sees Israeli acts like assassinating the suicide bomb engineers as terrorism while their behavior is a legitimate, moral struggle for national liberation. Few Islamic religious leaders speak out against terrorism, and those who do are often not understood to apply to Islamic terrorists.
He was convicted and jailed for inciting violence. After serving a few years, he was deported to Jamaica. He then went to Africa to preach and was expelled from several countries there.
Avigdor Lieberman is a Soviet-born Israeli politician who served as the Defense Minister of Israel from 2016 to 2018; on 14 November 2018, he resigned because of a ceasefire in Gaza which he characterized as "surrendering to terror." He served as Israel's Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2012, and again from 2013 to 2015. He has also served as member of the Knesset and as Deputy Prime Minister of Israel.