5 Things You Need to Know About Israel’s New Putin-Loving Defense Minister
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just fired a well-regarded defense minister known for his close ties to Washington and replaced him with one known for his close ties to Moscow and jaw-droppingly harsh anti-Arab rhetoric.
Here are five things to know about Avigdor Lieberman, the Moldovan-born former nightclub bouncer now charged with overseeing the Middle East’s most powerful military.
1) He wants to behead disloyal Arabs.
Lieberman has spent years calling for the death penalty for convicted terrorists. He’s recently given a sense of how he thinks some of those militants should be put to death, and it isn’t pretty.
“Those who are with us deserve everything, but those who are against us deserve to have their heads chopped off with an axe,” he said at an election rally in February.
Ahmad Tibi, a prominent Israeli-Arab politician, promptly replied that Lieberman was the “Jewish Islamic State.”
2) He wants to exile some Israeli-Arab politicians.
During a heated televised debate last year, Lieberman brutally attacked Iman Odeh, the leader of the Joint List, an alliance of Israeli-Arab political parties that is one of the largest blocs in the Israeli Knesset.
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