Liberman said to be in Paris for new diplomatic initiative

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, the head of the Yisrael Beytenu party, was reported to be in Paris on Saturday to advance a new diplomatic initiative.

Party officials refused to reveal the reason for the reported trip or even confirm it, but sources close to Liberman told Channel 2 news that a new initiative might be in the offing.

The report emerged ahead of a UN Security Council vote on a Palestinian statehood resolution, which the Palestinians have indicated will take place on Monday.

France, along with Britain and Germany, have been working on an alternative text aimed at reviving the peace process, to be presented to the UN Security Council at an undisclosed time. The document is said to counter the Palestinian-Jordanian version calling for the recognition of a Palestinian state and an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines by 2017.

Palestinian Authority senior official Saeb Erekat said last week that some revisions had been made to the Palestinian-Jordanian text but it was not clear what items appeared on the finalized version or if it incorporated some of the French text.

Liberman’s reported trip also comes amid a massive graft scandal involving several members of his party. On Friday, Liberman slammed the police investigation, suggesting that the motive behind the probe was political and the timing, ahead of elections, questionable. He also said he was convinced of his party members’ innocence.

Earlier this week, Liberman emphasized the importance of reaching a regional peace agreement, pointing to potential diplomatic and economic consequences if Israel fails to initiate solutions to its conflict with the Palestinians.

Speaking at a closed Tel Aviv University conference on Tuesday, the day before the major corruption investigation against his party was revealed, Liberman continued a string of recent pragmatic comments, as he criticized political rivals on both sides of the spectrum.

“We have to reach a political arrangement here,” stressed Liberman, in comments that were leaked to Haaretz. “Not because of the Arabs but because of the Jews. We need to reach an arrangement here in the region. First of all, because this is important for our relations with the European Union and the United States. For whoever doesn’t know — and I’m sure most of you do — our largest market is the EU.”

Pointing to EU sanctions on Russia, Liberman argued that it is impossible to maintain good economic relations when the political and diplomatic relationship is under stress: “It does not work. We must internalize this. And we see when there is a deterioration in the diplomatic relations, what happens to the economic. And I can give the example that is closest and most familiar to me — what is happening in Russia. And the more developed a country is, the more sensitive it is to every political decision, or every change in the complex economic relations.”

Still, he said, there is not yet a crisis with Western allies. “It is far from a tsunami… What we have now is a soft breeze. If we do not initiate, we will face a diplomatic tsunami.”

The foreign minister said that a regional agreement with Arab states would allow Israel to devote more resources to research, development and technology.

Turning to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an erstwhile political ally, Liberman criticized his lack of initiative in finding a solution to Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians. “There is a status quo…a step forward and a step back. There is no initiative. I stand for initiative. We must initiate. Whoever doesn’t initiate, loses. This approach has failed…I have respect for Netanyahu, but for now, my approach is more appropriate for this time.”

The private conference was organized by Tel Aviv University’s Business-Academic Club. Dozens of senior businessmen were in attendance, Haaretz reported, including former Bank of Israel governor Yaakov Frankel, former minister Dalia Itzik, and TAU president Joseph Klafter.

Liberman’s comments echoed his message from the night before.

“I wish pragmatism dominated the political discourse in Israeli society. We are torn between autism, pragmatism and fanaticism,” Liberman said at a book launch in Tel Aviv on Monday night.

The foreign minister alluded to the much-reported crisis in relations between Washington and Jerusalem, and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon’s harsh criticisms of US officials, which has gotten him in hot water recently.

“If you want a veto from the US [in hostile UN proposals] you need to understand that you can’t lash out against it,” Liberman said. “We have to come up with policy recommendations, we cannot be constantly saying no, no, no.

“Within the context of the crisis on the Middle East, it is imperative that Israel initiate solutions and push them forward. We must adopt a pragmatic approach, because without it, it won’t matter if we’re right,” he said.