Comparisons
between contemporary Iran and Nazi Germany are not only appropriate,
but pertinent and true, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said while on
a visit to Hungary on the morning of International Holocaust
Remembrance Day.
Speaking to
Israel Radio on Wednesday, the foreign minister stated that while the victims of
the Holocaust must be remembered and commemorated, the Jewish people
and the international community must also take heed of the lessons of
the tragedy and prevent such an event from ever recurring. “It is
enough to take a look at the report which appeared in this week's Der
Spiegel,” Lieberman said, referring to intelligence acquired by
the German BND which gives credence to suspicions that Iran may be
developing two separate nuclear programs – a civilian energy
endeavor and a clandestine military one which is directly answerable
to the country's defense ministry.
“This is the
first time that the leader of a UN member state declares there
was no Holocaust,” the foreign minister stressed, in an allusion to
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “Iran was responsible for
the bombings in Buenos Aires, both against the Israeli embassy and
the Jewish community building (AMIA). [Ahmad Vahidi], who was
responsible for two terror attacks - and the government of Argentina, not the government of Israel, issued an international arrest
warrant against him - currently serves as defense minister of Iran.
Such a defense minister, with a nuclear arsenal at his fingertips –
that is not something to be ignored or trivialized.”
Lieberman
clarified that no comparison between Iran and Nazi Germany could be
considered an exploitation of the genocide. “Anyone who remembers
the rise of the Nazis even before 1938, after the Weimar Republic,
anyone who understands history and remembers the reaction of the
international community – how they tried to placate [the Nazis], to
negotiate, to yield to them – must only think of the annexation of
what was then Czechoslovakia.”
While the foreign
minister acceded to the fact that the mullah-led Iranian regime was
not targeting Jews, he stated that Jews were nonetheless being
arrested and tried in the Islamic republic. “I certainly don't envy
the Jewish community in Iran. The president of Iran himself keeps
calling for a world without Zionism. He is replacing Judaism with
Zionism. 'There is no place for Jews in the Middle East,' he says. He
tells them to go back to Europe. It is fortunate that he
(Ahmadinejad) has yet to acquire the kind of power he aspires to.”
During the
interview, Lieberman also touched on the controversial treatment of
Turkish Ambassador Oguz Celikkol by the foreign minister's deputy,
Danny Ayalon. “It's not just the television show [portraying Mossad
agents as baby-snatchers],” he said. “The day after it aired, Turkish Prime Minister [Recep Tayyip Erdogan] held a joint press
conference with [Lebanese Prime Minister] Sa'ad Hariri in which they
both defined Israel as 'the greatest threat to the security of the
international community,' and I won't even repeat all the other
expressions [Erdogan] used.”
Asked if he
believed the current tension between Israel and Turkey stemmed from
the policies of a government led by Erdogan, Lieberman replied that
not much could be expected from a prime minister who called
Ahmadinejad a “close friend” and stated he would prefer to meet
with the “criminal president of Sudan,” Omar Al-Bashir, rather
than with President Shimon Peres. He cited a recent EU report which
brought to light discrepancies in Turkey's legal system, its use of
torture and its refusal to address tensions between Turkish and Greek
Cyprus. “We must look outside our little swamp. Change in Turkey is
not a change in its stance toward Israel,” Lieberman said. “We
have no interest in a deterioration in relations with Turkey. We
approach Turkey with respect and appreciation and expect the same.”
On the impasse in
peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, Lieberman was
adamant that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government would
“clearly” not make any more gestures in order to renew
negotiations. “We brought [former Palestinian Authority chairman
Yasser] Arafat in from Tunis, we gave him land and weapons, we
transferred 10,000 Jews from Gush Katif,” the foreign minister
said.
“[Former prime
minister Ehud] Olmert, [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud]
Abbas and [former US president George W.] Bush sat in Annapolis and
we watched Olmert explain that he is ready to return to the '67
borders, to divide Jerusalem, to address the issue of refugees. The
[Palestinians] said – 'no, nyet.' If they did not accept these
groundbreaking concessions, how will any gestures help?”
Lieberman
assessed that since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993, barely any
progress had been made in peace negotiations. “I don't think the
administration of [US President Barack] Obama is naïve, only
that the international community has a false perception that peace
can be forced,” he told his interviewer.
“Peace is achieved through many years of hard work. Security and a
[stable] economy must first be ensured. It isn't a question of good
will.”
Praising efforts
in the international arena by European leaders such as French
President Nicolas Sarkozy and his own host country, Hungary,
Lieberman concluded that Israel “must not underestimate its
friends.”