Israel Matzav: 'Gestures' to 'Palestinians' over?

'Gestures' to 'Palestinians' over?

I'd have a little more faith in this if it were coming from someone who was demanding 'concessions' in the first place, like Ehud Barak. Barak and company seem to be dominating this government so far. But for what it's worth, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says that Israel is done making 'concessions' to the 'Palestinians.'

"From our position we are finished with the arsenal of gestures," he said. "There will not be any other gestures."

Lieberman rejected two ideas that have recently been broached to lure the Palestinian Authority back to the negotiation table - the reopening of Orient House and the halt of Jewish construction in east Jerusalem.

"Right now we are waiting for gestures from the Palestinians," he said.

Well, good luck with that.

Lieberman made the statement during a press conference with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store. That press conference also yielded this exchange.

One of the issues that came up in the September meeting, but not on Sunday, had to do with the Norwegian Culture Ministry's marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of Nazi-sympathizing Norwegian author Knut Hamsun (1859-1952), who in 1945 wrote an obituary for Adolf Hitler in the Norwegian daily Aftenposten and called him a "warrior for mankind."

Nevertheless, at the press conference Store was asked about the issue and said that Norway made a distinction between Hamsun's writing and his political views.

"We had a year marking his literature, but also used the year to put into the right perspective the hopelessness of his political views," Store said.

Lieberman, however, took issue with this, saying that he could not accept the fact that someone who sent the medal for his Nobel Prize for literature to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels as a sign of admiration, and eulogized Hitler, could be legitimized in any sort of way, "not as a man, and not as a writer. Any attempt to distinguish between his personality and his literature, I think, is artificial," he said.

In a morally bankrupt world that continues to insist on calling Nazi supporters great writers and heroes, can we really expect that there will not be continued pressure on Israel for more 'concessions' to a terror organization? This is why Israel needs a strong government that is willing to stand up to the pressure and say no. So far, I haven't seen that from this government.

Israel Matzav: 'Gestures' to 'Palestinians' over?