The Israeli election results have changed nothing of consequence. The new government will be a coalition of Likud, Yisrael Beitenu, Labour and Shas. Benjamin Netanyahu will be Prime Minister with Labour leader Ehud Barak continuing as Defence Minister and Yisrael leader Avigdor Lieberman becoming Foreign Minister. It will be the fourth time that the arch-racist Lieberman will have served as a minister in an Israeli government.
In the run-up to the election Hamas stated: ‘Today we face three heads of terrorism, Livni – who wants to pursue the war on Gaza, Netanyahu – who clearly announced there is no Palestinian partner for peace and won’t abide by any agreement with the Palestinians, and Lieberman – who once wanted to bomb the Aswan Dam, destroy Egypt and throw the Palestinian people into the sea’.
Palestinians in Israel have continued to mobilise in opposition to Zionism, most recently on 24 March in Umm El Fahm. They were responding to a provocation by followers of the extremist Kahane movement who wanted to march through the Palestinian town. The extreme right in Israel, which of course includes Lieberman, has been demanding that the Palestinian population of Israel take an oath of loyalty to the Zionist state. 2,500 Israeli police were drafted in to the town to defend the march of about 100 racists, to be met by thousands of Palestinian protesters who threw rocks and bottles against police lines.
FRFI 208 April / May 2009
