Foreign Minister Lieberman: 'We Will Not Be Victims Of Appeasement'

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, fresh off what was widely viewed as his “undiplomatic” address to the UN General Assembly last month, told his visiting Spanish and French counterparts on Sunday that before coming to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they should concentrate on the problems in their own backyard.

“I don’t expect you to solve the problems of the world, but I certainly expect that before you come here to teach us how to solve conflicts, you will deal with the problems in Europe and solve those conflicts,” Lieberman told French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos, who arrived on Sunday for a day of talks in Israel, followed by a day of talks in the Palestinian Authority.

Lieberman said that after solving the conflicts in the Caucasus and Cyprus, and after making peace between Serbia and Kosovo, then the Europeans can come here and “we will listen to your advice.”

“In 1938, the European community decided to appease Hitler instead of supporting Czechoslovakia and sacrificed them [sic] without gaining anything,” Lieberman said.

“We will not be Czechoslovakia of 2010. We will ensure the security of Israel.”

Lieberman said it seemed as if the international community was trying to make up for all its failures in solving conflicts around the world by forging an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians in one year.

“What about the struggle in Somalia, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Sudan?” he asked. “Instead of talking now with the Arab League about the future of a referendum in Sudan, or discussing the explosive situation in Iraq in 2012, the international community is applying great pressure on Israel.”

Lieberman said that while the international community was talking about bringing about calm in the region, it would likely cause the exact opposite and “bring about an explosion like what happened after Camp David in 2000.”

Earlier in the day, Moratinos and Kouchner met with President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and opposition leader Tzipi Livni, and heard less strident messages.

Nevertheless, in those meetings as well, the two foreign ministers were told that just as the international community played a role in getting the PA to enter direct talks with Israel last month, it must convince it of the need to show flexibility on the settlement moratorium issue now.

Even before the duo’s arrival, Israeli officials relayed Jerusalem’s displeasure to Paris and Madrid at their recent decisions to upgrade the status of the Palestinian delegations in each capital to “mission” status.

The French took that step in July, following an upgrade of the PLO presence in Washington to “delegation general,” and Spain took a similar move in September.

Israel’s message to the French and the Spanish was that this was not the right time to give the Palestinians a “free prize,” and that it sent the wrong message at a time when the PA was not showing any flexibility.

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