Word: liebermanically
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...reputed to be Israel's biggest loudmouth, Avigdor Lieberman speaks softly. His flat, Russian-accented baritone rarely rises above a murmur. He's not a shouter. But when Lieberman talks, people listen - less because he is Israel's top diplomat than because of his knack for saying decidedly undiplomatic things. Lieberman believes that Israel's Arab citizens, who make up nearly 20% of the population, should be forced to sign oaths of loyalty. He has advocated the death penalty for Arab members of parliament who meet with members of Hamas. He calls the Obama Administration's push to curb...
That bluntness has earned Lieberman the devotion of Israeli hawks and the disdain of liberals, Palestinians and just about every government in the Arab world. In February's election, Lieberman's 10-year-old party, Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Is Our Home), won the third highest number of seats in the Knesset, making him a linchpin of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government. That has complicated the Obama Administration's effort to pressure Israel to freeze settlement growth and restart peace negotiations with the Palestinians. How far Netanyahu travels in Obama's direction may depend on Lieberman's willingness...
...Foreign Minister is an unlikely firebrand. In person, he can be reserved to the point of shyness. When we met him at his office on June 24, we asked Lieberman whether Obama needed to take a tougher stand against Iran's crackdown on those protesting the results of the June 12 election. "This is a really fanatic, extremist regime that is still in power, and the young people ... are not getting any real support from the West," he said. "It shows the bad guys are winners." And he reiterated his resistance to any U.S. attempt to stop settlement growth...
...Lieberman's hard line is the product of his past. His family moved to Israel in 1978 from the Soviet republic of Moldavia, now Moldova. His father fought in the Red Army in World War II but, like many other Soviet Jews, later spent years of forced exile in Siberia. "In my home, we spoke only about Israel," Lieberman says. "It was a dream that one day we would come here." Upon arriving, Lieberman enrolled at Hebrew University, moonlighting as a bouncer at a student nightclub and becoming active in the right-wing Likud Party. In the late...
...Lowdown: Senator Joseph Lieberman called the GAO's findings "about the broadest indictment of an agency of the Federal Government that I've heard," and it's hard to disagree. The director of the FPS, which has a budget of about $1 billion, said a lack of money and manpower has hampered the organization and vowed to address the problems. It seems safe to guess that some improvement is on the way - after all, things can't get much worse. But along with weaknesses documented in the Transportation Security Administration, the report supports the notion that even in a post...