Israeli FM Lieberman's Washington meetings

Posted By Laura Rozen Wednesday, June 17, 2009 - 2:43 PM Share

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, founder of the right wing Yisrael Beiteinyu party, has arrived in Washington and is scheduled to meet with his counterpart Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at 2pm this afternoon.

There is not a lot of publicity about his visit, no doubt because Lieberman is a controversial figure at home and abroad, who has said Israel's Arab citizens should be required to sign loyalty oaths; numerous Israeli reports have indicated that Lieberman is the subject of an on-going corruption investigation.

Among his other planned Washington meetings, according to the Israeli Foreign Minister's bureau: National Security Advisor General James L. Jones, the chairmen of the Senate and House Foreign Affairs Committees, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Sen. Joe Lieberman, House Minority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Senate Minority Whip Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and unspecified other officials. Lieberman also plans to visit the U.S. Holocaust Museum where a gunman killed a security guard last week, the bureau release said.

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STACYX

3:56 PM ET

June 17, 2009

Lieberman's belief in loyalty

Lieberman's belief in loyalty oaths is probably one of his milder, less repugnant views, unfortunately. But isn't it nice that the mainstream media don't inconvenience the American people with the burden of actually knowing about the hostile, often hateful rhetoric of a power-broker like Avigdor Lieberman, now the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel?

Professor Juan Cole highlighted the hypocrisy of US and international acceptance of Avigdor Lieberman into the fold, so-to-speak.

In other news, for the past two-three days an "unnamed official" in Israel has been quoted in the media as saying the US will bend somewhat (ie. cave) on the issue of settlements. Ha'aretz had the same story a day or two ago.

If Obama does cave in to this most reasonable demand [regarding settlements], he will lose all credibility with the Muslim world and will effectively be abdicating his authority in the peace process and for what? To appease the pro-Israel pundits, interest groups and hawks in both the Democratic and Republican parties? Is that more important than mid-east peace?

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Secretary Clinton Blog

STACYX

9:32 PM ET

June 17, 2009

No big surprise

Well, it's official- in a statement that will come as a surprise to no one familiar with his stance on West Bank settlements (given he lives in one), Avigdor Lieberman reiterated to Hillary Clinton today that Israel will not comply with Obama's demand of a freeze on all settlement activity.

Now the ball is in Obama's court.

In other news, an inconvenient 1979 State Dept. legal opinion about the illegality of settlements in the Occupied Territories, has been selectively ignored ever since.

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Secretary Clinton Blog

STACYX

12:06 AM ET

June 18, 2009

Is it me?

I keep checking the State Dept. website for a transcript and/or video of the Lieberman-Clinton press conference this afternoon and interestingly, despite the fact that they usually get the transcripts and videos loaded onto the site quickly, there is nothing on the site about the much-anticipated meeting. Perhaps this sounds a bit paranoid, but I am wondering if there is a reason for this, particularly given they were able to post the video and transcript of the daily press briefing on the site about 2 hrs after it took place.

STACYX

12:26 AM ET

June 18, 2009

Ok, State Dept website has

Ok, State Dept website has posted the transcript of the press conference, here.