Q&A: Is Lieberman anti-Semitic?
Is Lieberman anti-Semitic?
Question
You once said, in response to why you wouldn’t vote for Lieberman, that aside from being a nonentity, he is anti-Semitic. Now I really don’t understand: all in all he just wants separation of religion and state, dealing with Haredi exploitation; in short, like most opponents of the government, except that with him it’s more of a factor (which is why he didn’t agree to go with Bibi), and therefore he speaks more bluntly and forcefully against the Haredim and Smotrich. By the way, his daughter is religious, he lives in a settlement, and his wife is traditional (according to what he says). I’m really surprised how the Rabbi, as someone who agrees with him on these matters and doesn’t surrender to Haredi demagoguery, calls him anti-Semitic.
Answer
I don’t remember saying that. In any case, today I don’t think he is anti-Semitic. He is anti-Haredi, and rightly so.
Discussion on Answer
Five years have passed since that answer. In the previous government, he did a lot in the Finance Ministry, maybe because he was no longer working with Bibi and had support.
A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then. Back then Lieberman was definitely much closer to the corrupt Bibi and Deri, and there really was no added value to his presence (except perhaps that he was the only one who did not take part in the prevailing security conception of the time). Since then he divorced himself from Bibi and Deri, was a very good and responsible Finance Minister, and promotes a liberal agenda on religion and state and on other issues. In my opinion he is the only right-wing vote today, and it is obviously natural to change one’s position about him.
I was talking about his party. I no longer remember who was in it then or what he did or said. In any case, in my opinion, as stated, Lieberman is anti-Haredi, and rightly so.
As Finance Minister, do you think he was good relative to his predecessors, or just reasonable?
I don’t know.
I don’t know whether he was good or not. In my opinion, one of the achievements he presented is problematic. He kept presenting a decrease in the deficit and a budget surplus as a good thing. But the truth is that there is also a problematic side to that.
A good business should always be in debt, because it knows how to invest the money and create value beyond the interest on the debt (especially in years when interest rates were low). A properly run state, too, will be in debt, and will invest the money it borrowed to create value greater than the debt—for example, investing in infrastructure, education, etc., which are expected to yield greater value in return.
The questioner is apparently referring to this:
“Indeed, if I believed in him I might vote for him. But Lieberman is fairly lacking in views and completely lacking in deeds (a real nobody). He has never done anything besides talk and make declarations (and engage in corruption). Beyond that, his party is an anti-Semitic party (not metaphorically but literally), and I see no possibility of voting for such a party.”