Avidgor Liberman
Avidgor LibermanFlash 90

Since 2019, when Avigdor Liberman refused to join the right-wing coalition and allow the formation of a stable coalition, he has held Israel hostage, and while he claims this is because of the increasingly religious bent of the Netanyahu cabinet, where is the basis for this statement? Has the status quo noticeably shifted to more religious in recent years? Quite the contrary! The religiously observant merely try to uphold the status quo between religion and State. Maybe Liberman has had a sudden change of mind, and now opposes the very concept of a status quo, magically, without there being a major shift in the policy itself.

By what moral principle does he oppose it? The miracle of Israel has been that it both sustains a strong identity and high birthrate, this whiile also being highly developed. It is explicitly because of the religious birth rate that Jews maintain a majority in Eretz Yisrael, but he punishes haredi families, ending subsidies and imposing taxes. If the anti-religious had their way and religious marriage and Haredi support programs ceased. Israel would be turned into America, unable to assert any positive identity, except mindless materialistic consumerism.

Israel, the once chance the Jewish people have had in two thousand years to assert themselves, as did every other nation, would quickly turn to questions of national survival, the demographic census would show “Jewish demographic decline”, the reporters would talk of how the origin of Israel is “Jewish supremacy”.

We can already see this starting now,

Haaretz has published an article entitled “My Palestinian Husband Banned Hebrew From Our Home. Our Daughter Is Fighting Back” in which the author states: “After my Palestinian husband cleared our daughter’s bookshelves of Hebrew and anything related to the Jewish holidays, I complied with his wish to keep our house free of Judaism.” We must ask ourselves, is living under Naziesque laws worth the momentary praise from Liberals before our fall? Of course, Liberman is not blind to this!

Wouldn’t we rather the reporters say that “Jewish people have a right to their own cultural heritage”, and Jewish women say “I am a proud Jewish mother, with a loving Jewish husband, and we celebrate our Jewish culture in the Jewish State”? Only a foolish nation would throw that priceless heritage away.

It is shameful how quickly the gratitude for the miracle of Israel has run dry.

Jewish is beautiful, Judaism is beautiful. We should remind ourselves of the gratitude that we owe to the religious, and their preservation of traditional Jewish marriage customs. Any right-wing party that does not understand the purpose and importance of this institution, does not care about the preservation of Jewish culture.

What is the real reason Liberman has gone about establishing a series of elections and deadlocks - for what exact purpose is he promoting hatred? Indeed, Avigdor Liberman does not primarily care about the State of Israel, although ostensibly he cares about furthering the interests of the secular Jewish and non-Jewish Russian sector of the population. Liberman is tied to the so-called “International Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots”, and has extensively met with Putin, in addition to defending anti-Ukrainian War crimes.

What motivation could he possibly have? What does it say when he presumes that advocacy on behalf of the Russian olim means actively supporting the Neo-Soviet ambitions of Putin, and holding Medinat Yisrael hostage for years? Has he forgot the suffering endured by Soviet Jews? Or, in the same vein, the genocide of Ukrainians by the Soviet Union? These questions require presuming that Liberman is an independent and moral political actor, who genuinely cares about principles. No truly rational Israeli actor would destroy his own country, holding its budget and stability hostage, undermining the popular democratic will of the people.

But Vladimir Putin is a former KGB Agent, and has been actively expanding Russias borders and usage of soft power. Why would he not take advantage of a sympathetic former Soviet citizen? No one is opposed to the Russian sector in Israel Nor, is anyone truly opposed to any specific Jewish sub-groupings, and the vast majority of Israelis correctly see them equally. Equally Jewish, equally Israeli..

Medinat Yisrael, must ensure that every member of Am Yisrael, is not left behind – regardless of origin, convert, immigrant or native born Sabra. The basis of the shared identity is Zionism, a commitment to the integration of Am Yisrael, into Eretz Yisrael under the authority and unity of Medinat Yisrael. There is no room for an illegitimate and immoral apparatus by which anyone should institute differentiation between the ethnic sub-groupings of Am Yisrael outside of a recognition of differences in ethnic religious tradition. But this is what Liberman attempts to do. Unity is the essence of Zionism, and the Zionist ideal. There is no Eretz Yisrael without Zionism, and there is no Zionism without Am Yisrael.

Libermans party, however, is becoming unpopular as Russians have further integrated into the mainstream political Zeitgeist and therefore he is looking for a drawing factor. Undermining the State, Liberman operates covertly, under the guise of “Secularism”, stirs the pot, and even did so during the pandemic, of all times! Lying to Russian Jews about an imaginary “Halakhic State” is one way to get votes.

Liberman says he wishes to resurrect the spirit of the great Leader Jabotinsky, but is that what Jabotinsky would have done? The man who sacrificed his ego, his self, his glory to the land, and the unity of Israel in the land of Israel?.

The primary differences between Liberman, and Jabotinsky, are selflessness and loyalty to the Jewish nation. The great Leaders of the pre-State movements were unified in fundamentals – they thought not of themselves, but first and only of Israel. Liberman? He if filled with hatred and thinks only of himself!