Israeli's new foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has been making the news almost daily for his often hawkish comments. Today he said Israel should shift its focus from the Palestinians to the Iranians, according to Press TV. "The biggest problem isn't the Palestinians, but the Iranians," he said.
The following is a quick roundup of Lieberman's most incendiary, offensive, reprehensible, obnoxious, abhorrent, heinous and invidious statements over the years. Lieberman has been described by the notable Hebrew University professor Ze'ev Sternhell as, "perhaps the most dangerous politician in the history of the state of Israel." The following are some of the windbag FM's most outrageous, but bear in mind that this list is by no means exhaustive.
***
1. In 2002, following terrorist attacks on Israelis, Lieberman called for military attacks on Palestinian civilian and commercial targets, saying: "If it were up to me I would notify the Palestinian Authority tomorrow at ten in the morning we would bomb all their places of business in Ramallah, for example."..."I would not hesitate to send the Israeli army into all of Area A [the area of the West Bank ostensibly under Palestinian Authority control] for 48 hours. Destroy the foundation of all the authority's military infrastructure, all of the police buildings, the arsenals, all the posts of the security forces... not leave one stone on another. Destroy everything."
2. In 2003, following Sharon granting amnesty to 250 Palestinian prisoners, Lieberman called for mass executions, saying: " It would be better to drown these prisoners in the Dead Sea if possible, since that's the lowest point in the world."
3. In 2006, Lieberman called for the execution of Arab Knesset members who met with Hamas representatives, saying: "World War II ended with the Nurenberg trials. The heads of the Nazi regime, along with their collaborators, were executed. I hope this will be the fate of the collaborators in [the Knesset]."
4. Also in 2006, Lieberman declared explicitly that Jewish and Zionist values trump all others, saying: "The vision I would like to see here is the entrenching of the Jewish and the Zionist state...I very much favour democracy, but when there is a contradiction between democratic and Jewish values, the Jewish and Zionist values are more important."
5. In early 2009, during the Israeli "Cast Lead" incursion into Gaza, Lieberman made the historical argument that total nuclear destruction of a state is more economical than occupation, saying: "We must continue to fight Hamas just like the United States did with the Japanese in World War II. Then, too, the occupation of the country was unnecessary."
6. In April of 2009, Lieberman called for Israel to disregard past peace efforts, namely the Annapolis peace talks initiated under Bush, saying: "There is one document that obligates us -- and that's not the Annapolis conference, it has no validity."
For more HuffPost stories on Lieberman, go to the Avigdor Lieberman Big News Page.