The Last Exile

Lieberman is making new fans wherever he goes….Ha’aretz:

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday said he plans to attend the Mediterranean Union summit in Barcelona next month, despite threats that Arab states would boycott if he is present at the meeting, Israel Radio reported. Arab countries are threatening to boycott the June meeting of leaders of  Mediterranean countries if Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu ) attends. The threat to boycott the Barcelona summit, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also scheduled to attend, was initiated by Egypt and Syria. They have informed both their Spanish hosts and France, which co-chairs the sponsoring organization, the Union for the Mediterranean, that Arab leaders will stay away if Lieberman shows up.

I’m only a Lieberman fan for the entertainment value. I’m far too Dati to ever consider Yisrael Beiteinu as my “Israeli political home’ but there is something about Lieberman which just rubs wrong on all the right people in all the right ways. It is bizarre in a dictatorship like Syria to have a hissy fit and objecting to the presence of Lieberman, who rightly or wrongly, got his current position through the mandate of the Israeli electorate. And Egypt, well considering their Foreign Minister continues to refer to the Israelis as Egypt’s ‘enemy’…it’s a lost cause making them see sense.

I hope Bibi finds his oh-so-flexable backbone and insists Lieberman attends or Israel doesn’t which will send just the right message to all the right people. Although, I expect Bibi will tell Lieberman to stay home. Besides if a man who penned parts of ph’d thesis on the theme the holocaust wasn’t all that bad can be welcomed all throughout Europe and the Middle East and hailed as a ‘moderate’ Palestinian leader; I think its fair to say Lieberman isn’t overtly objectionable given the local, circumstances or the company.