AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN REALLY WAS A PLANT

Dror Eydar addresses the anti-democratic bill leveled against Israel HaYom in the Knesset yesterday, which Tzipi Livni supported, gallingly enough, but Avigdor Lieberman also gave his full backing for:

Livni should not take democracy's name in vain; she should inquire with legal scholars on both the Right and the Left about the degree to which this vile bill hurts democracy, free speech and our public discourse. A media outlet's content should never be grounds for its closure unless it actively promotes sedition or violence. This disgrace is a mark of Cain on the forehead of those who call themselves proponents of democracy and free speech; I am referring to people like MK Merav Michaeli (Labor), MK Ofer Shelah (Yesh Atid), and MK Ruth Calderon (Yesh Atid). Calderon has always advocated a spirited Talmudic-style debate but on Wednesday decided to vote in favor of restricting the marketplace of ideas.

Those supposedly principled MKs also disgraced themselves. What would the late former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir have said had he witnessed his son, Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Yair Shamir (Yisrael Beytenu), vote for the bill? What would the late Irgun officer Haim Landau have thought about his son, Tourism Minister Uzi Landau (Yisrael Beytenu), voting for a bill that stifles the Right's free speech? I am focusing on Yisrael Beytenu MKs for a reason. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who has tried to move this bill forward, is very close to Mozes and a darling of Yedioth.

While Lieberman gets favorable coverage in Yedioth, the conservative-rightist constituents he claims to represent are being badgered over and over again by the paper that used to run a state. That paper now has a competitor it needs to shut down.

Lieberman says his party belongs to the Right. On Wednesday's moment of truth it turned out that this party of his is just a decoy that was used to siphon off votes from the Right for the sake of power and personal vengeance. No one really knows what Lieberman genuinely believes in, on any issue (with the exception of inciting the public against the Arabs). The Right would be well-advised not to build up expectations when it comes to his willingness to safeguard the land of Israel. How ironic is it that MK Ahmad Tibi (Ra'am-Ta'al) and other Arab MKs voted with Lieberman. The next time Tibi laments about the lack of free speech and the infringement of minorities, people should wave a copy of the bill in front of him.

It's time to boycott Yediot Achronot right into the ground. I'm not even going to link to any articles they publish anymore, because I honestly don't see the point of giving them attention at this point; they don't deserve it. And Eydar has a point about Lieberman's willingness to defend Israel being uncertain. This was a man who got involved with potentially corrupt casino magnates, one more reason why he shouldn't be backed.