Lieberman back in power after acquittal
After a decade and a half hampered by police investigations and plans for indictment, Avigdor Lieberman, one of the most powerful figures in Israeli politics, finally cleared his name last week.
A Jerusalem court acquitted him of charges of fraud and breach of trust, and this week Lieberman returned to the post of foreign minister, after an absence of almost a year to fight his case.
Police started looking into the affairs of Lieberman in the late 1990s. Investigations have focused on various themes, including an allegation that he illicitly received hundreds of millions of dollars from businessmen, laundered through straw companies.
In 2011, Israel’s attorney general Yehuda Weinstein indicated that he planned to indict Lieberman for his alleged financial dealings, but when the indictment came last year, it was for a small peripheral matter. He was not to face trial for his financial dealings – only for allegedly rewarding a diplomat who gave him some details of investigations that took place against him.
Ze’ev Ben Aryeh was Jerusalem’s ambassador to Belarus, and passed Lieberman confidential information about investigations against him in that country. The allegation was that Lieberman used influence to thank Ben Aryeh for the information by having him appointed as ambassador to Latvia in 2009.
But the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court rejected the prosecution’s case, saying that the Latvian post wasn’t a step up for Ben Aryeh and that, anyway, there was no proof that Lieberman had intervened to secure it for him.
The court’s only real criticism of Lieberman was that he had failed to report his relationship with Ben Aryeh to the foreign ministry committee that examines appointments – but it didn’t consider this serious enough for conviction on breach of trust, Israel’s main misconduct crime.
And so, the government welcomed Lieberman back as foreign minister. Jurists and commentators unleashed sharp criticism against the attorney general for wrongly believing that he could convict Lieberman on this charge and failing to bring the main case which related to financial matters.
The main question raised by Lieberman’s acquittal is its impact on politics and diplomacy. He made an alliance between his party, Yisrael Beitenu, and Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party ahead of January’s election. But he may well consider it within his political interest to end the alliance, which could cause instability within the government.
In terms of his role in the foreign ministry, it is unclear how this will impact Israel’s international standing.
Relations between Jerusalem and its allies in the West, especially the US, are strained in the light of negotiations with Iran and the flagging peace process with the Palestinians. Ministers to the right of Netanyahu are already taking actions that are making international relations awkward for him – a clear example being the revelation on Tuesday that the housing ministry, which is controlled by Uri Ariel of the right-wing Jewish Home party, has published tenders for 20,000 settlement units. Just over 1000 were in a particularly sensitive location, and were cancelled by Netanyahu. Now, the foreign ministry is under the control of Lieberman, a staunch rightist.
Lieberman is sometimes a pragmatist, who leaves political processes that he is inclined against, such as peace negotiations with the Palestinians to continue. Other times, such as in the case of Israel-Turkey relations, he strains tensions. Which path he chooses now that he has returned to the foreign ministry could have an important impact on Israel’s future.
NATHAN JEFFAY
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