Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy said that one good thing about the election of Avigdor Lieberman is that it will end the hypocrisy - "the veil will be lifted and the nation's (Israel's) true face revealed to its citizens and the rest of the world, including Arab countries."
There is much truth in that statement, because really Lieberman isn't some startling new development in Israeli political life. He's the attitude that has always been there. It's just that now it has a major portfolio.
At the recent Israeli cabinet photoshoot the ex-ball breaker was the only minister wearing a dangerous looking red tie. This is the same cabinet pic that the Orthodox newspaper Yated Neeman photoshopped... artfully replacing two female ministers with two men.
At the Israeli Foreign Ministry following the photoshoot Lieberman made a speech that included the latin saying - Si vis pacem, para bellum - which translates as "if you want peace, prepare for war". This calls into question any starry eyed notions that Lieberman might use his elevation to high office as an opportunity to soften his hawkish image and work on a more diplomatic approach.
Lieberman went on to explain that concessions do not bring peace - quite the contrary in his view.
At work here is the macho iron-fist-first philosophy near and dear to Lieberman's heart, a conviction he probably tested live when chucking disorderly patrons out the door of Moldavian night clubs. Guaranteed to make you feared.... respected is another matter.
Pointedly rejecting more recent peace initiatives as he has done and backpeddling to the pre-Annapolis Road Map, is a bit like giving the finger to the Obama administration or as Israeli analyst Gershom Gorenberg puts it, acting like "a bull in a China shop."
He wants no acceleration of the process : "We will never agree to jump over all the clauses and go to the last one, which is negotiations over a final status agreement."
Truth is, Lieberman is less interested in peace than in a "peace process" which can be strung out indefinitely.
There is always the hope that the top heavy Netanyahu government might suffer a miscarriage. An editorial in Haaretz last week said the new government was "destined to fail" and then added:
Israel sent the world a message last night that it is not headed for peace and change. All that remains is to hope that Israel's largest government ever ... will also be the government that makes way for its successor with the greatest speed.
Here's hoping.
