Avigdor Lieberman's press conference

Avigdor Lieberman’s ‘press conference’ before the Russian language media at the Israeli Consulate in New York last week was one of the stranger media events this reporter has covered in over 30 years in the business—an ‘off the record’ press conference.

First, a cross section of New York’s Russian leadership attended the event, so that it had more of the feeling of a political rally than a press conference. The attitude toward Lieberman by nearly all of those in attendance was utterly reverential, and anything he would have said or done would have been greeted with cries of approval.

What Lieberman did was to confound expectation. The guy with a reputation as a loud mouth loose cannon given to making outrageous statements spoke in a soft monotone and said little that was controversial, Secondly, after giving opening remarks of about five minutes that were a repeat of things he had said many times before, Lieberman then said that everything he would say from that point on in response to questions from reporters would have to be ‘off the record’. Turn off your tape recorders and put away your cameras, members of the media.

Say what? An off the record press conference? Well, not exactly, because in response to cries of protest from several reporters, Lieberman grudgingly agreed that we lowly scribes could report what he said in general terms, as long as he wasn’t quoted directly. Or at least that was what he appeared to say in Russian, even though Israeli Consul General Aryeh Mekel, who was sitting alongside Lieberman but doesn’t speak Russian, said that Lieberman told him in Hebrew that his press conference was totally off the record, which meant that Lieberman’s name shouldn’t be anywhere in anything we should write—let him be referred to as a high government official or some such nonsense. But then, Lieberman didn’t say a lot that would make for good headlines anyway. So, what the hell, I’ll take my chances and briefly describe Lieberman’s remarks for the readers of Ruby Jewsday.

In a nutshell, Lieberman was selling himself in his new guise as the minister responsible for confronting the Iranian threat, and therefore as now being above the grubby details of politics; the staunchest defender not only of Israel’s survival, but of all of western civilization. Quite a portfolio for a boy from Kishinev who just a few years ago was directing thugs to rough up anti-Bibi delegates at the Likud convention! The situation today, Lieberman said, is like Munich 1938, and the West needs to stand united in full solidarity with Israel, rather than appeasing the anti-Semitic fanatics, which, he seemed to imply, is the course of sellouts like James Baker and the Iran Study Group. Lieberman said (and this clearly would have been the best sound bite of the press conference if we reporters could have used it), that the United States has the military strength to deal with Iran, but probably not enough political will. Elite opinion understands the great danger from Iran, but public opinion in the US doesn’t get it and is in a dangerously pacifist mood. It was not an issue of Republicans necessarily being more resolute than Democrats, he emphasized. He met with Tom Lantos and his namesake, Joe Lieberman on this trip, and they both are very tough on Iran.

So how can you serve in the government of a weakling like Olmert, Lieberman was asked by a hard-line reporter from one of the local Russian newspapers? I’m doing it for the sake of the national interest, not for my own political interest, Lieberman replied, his eyes turned reverentially upward. As though he is the only politician in Israel who puts the national interest over his own and as though going into the government did not give him a powerful leg up on Bibi in the contest to be the leader of the right in Israel. No, this Lieberman is a real tzaddik.

The main thing is to build a wall to wall coalition against the fanatics, extremists and Holocaust-deniers in Teheran, everything else is secondary. It’s a question of To Be or Not To Be. He has a point in that, what with the detestable Ahmedinijad riding high and hosting Holocaust denying scum like David Duke, but it is mildly troubling that someone like Lieberman who has taken some extremist positions himself, such as reading Israeli Arabs out of the national community even though they have been part of Israel far longer than himself and other ex-Soviet Jews, should be positioned at the head of that effort. Extremism against extremism.

Asked how Russian Jews in America can help in that effort, Lieberman said they should mobilize all of their efforts to influence the American Jewish community, Congress and the White House, to confront Iran and not allow it to develop a bomb. The hour is late and we all have to join in the effort.

Overall, it was an impressive showing, even with the annoying ‘off the record’ gambit. The guy is obviously a hell of a smart politician and seemed to confirm my prophecy of a few months ago that he will moderate his positions as he gets closer to power. He has certainly gone mainstream now, meeting with Condy Rice, Joe Lieberman and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Anyway, he sure knows how to knock reporters off stride, scratching our heads and trying to figure out whether he was really off the record or not. Frankly, I’m still not sure I might not get a visit from the Mossad for putting this material on my blog. If it happens, dear readers, you will be the first to know.