Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s deputy prime minister, stated that Israel should assassinate Hamas’ leadership, ignore the moderate Palestinian president, and walk away from international peace efforts. This comment was only the latest in a string of far right positions voiced by Lieberman. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert brought Lieberman into the cabinet last month after Israel’s failure in their war against Lebanon.

Presently, Hamas and Fatah are continuing talks to form a unified Palestinian government. President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah hopes the deal will enable him to revive peace efforts with Israel. However, Lieberman’s call for Hamas’ leaders to be sent to “paradise” has raised concerns that Israel will not pursue peace efforts. Like a ventriloquist claiming to have no control over his dummy, PM Olmert has often said that Lieberman’s inflammatory comments are his alone and “don’t reflect Israeli policy”.

In recent months Israel has turned down offers of peace with Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. Despite this track record, Lieberman has said on Israeli radio that it’s the Palestinians, and not the Israeli’s, who want war. He said Israel must abandon past peace deals, known as the Oslo accords, and the US-backed “road map” peace plan. “A continuation of Oslo, of the road map … will lead us to another round of conflict, a much more bloody round, and in the end to an even deeper deadlock, and it threatens our future,” he said. “They … have to disappear, to go to paradise, all of them, and there can’t be any compromise.”

Lieberman’s party Yisrael Beiteinu, or “Israel Our Home,” has 11 seats in Israel’s 120-member parliament and provides a comfortable safety net to Olmert in parliament votes. But the government expansion has been roundly criticized by Israeli doves and Arab activists, who equated Lieberman with far-right European politicians Joerg Haider and Jean-Marie Le Pen. Lieberman’s recent calls to strip Israeli Arabs of citizenship and transfer them to Palestinian jurisdiction drew widespread condemnations.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, a top Abbas aide, said Lieberman’s ideas “are a recipe for the continuation of bloodshed, violence, extremism and hatred between the two sides.” Abbas, meanwhile, was in Gaza on Saturday to push forward with negotiations with Hamas on forming a unity government. Negotiators said the sides were making progress and tackling the distribution of Cabinet ministries.

Both sides hope the new government, made up of independent experts acceptable to the rival parties, can bring about an end to a crippling international aid boycott imposed after Hamas was elected to power in January.

Despite being democratically elected, Israel has kidnapped over one-third of the Palestinian Hamas government. Recently, Hamas government officials criticized the UN General Assembly’s call for an end to Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip. Government spokesman Ghazi Hamad said the nonbinding resolution did not go far enough. “The ongoing Israeli attacks on the Palestinian civilians are war crimes that violate international law. Therefore, sanctions must imposed on Israel,” he said. Israel’s UN ambassador also criticized the resolution, saying it was a “farce.”

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