JERUSALEM (Press Release)–Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman opened the 41st Conference of Presidents Leadership Mission to Israel.
The Foreign Minister lamented the fact that Israel goes to elections so frequently noting that every two years they face elections or war and he compared Israel to the United States which never had an early election in all of its history. He spoke of the changes in the electoral system he believes must be made citing the wasteful number of ministries in previous governments, one with twenty-eight not so long ago versus Switzerland’s seven.
Minister Lieberman touched on the main issues facing Israel and the Jewish people. Iran, he said, was Israel’s “biggest challenge.” Regarding other regional issues he lauded Jordanian King Abdullah’s response to the horrific murder of one of their pilots saying that ISIS and other terror groups only understand the language of force, “We are not in Canada or the US, political correctness is not understood in the Middle East.”
The moderate countries in the Arab world, he noted, recognize that their biggest threat is radical Islam and not Jews and Israel. Cooperation with Israel is the best solution for them, he said, because of our experience fighting terror and our intelligence. Israel, he said, is a reliable partner. The Minister said maybe it would be possible to open diplomatic relations with these moderate Arab states after the election.
The Minister spoke of the hypocrisy of the international community, citing the fact that 76,000 people have been slaughtered and killed in Syria last year but there have been no UN Security Council or EU resolutions condemning the loss of life but a few houses are destroyed in Jerusalem and the Security Council and EU “shout.” The Minister said Israel was expecting a huge amount of pressure from the UN and EU after the upcoming election and he said that he hoped Israel would be able to protect its interests despite the pressure.
Regarding the situation in Denmark, France and other European countries, “it’s clear that it is time to take real decisions…I think it’s time for all Jewish people to come to Israel,” he said.
A later session focused on social media and the upcoming Israeli elections. Tal Schneider, political blogger, Lahav Harkov, Knesset correspondent, Jerusalem Post and Tal Shalev, i24’s diplomatic correspondent discussed how social media is being used by the candidates in new and unprecedented ways. The speakers illustrated their remarks with subtitled political campaign ads that are viewed by millions of Israelis on Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp and shared twitter conversations that the candidates are having in lieu of formal debates.
It was pointed out that in the past several weeks, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s videos were very amusing, focusing on him as the person able to best lead the nation. His videos are released every Saturday night, thus setting the agenda for the first day of the work week. On the other hand, the Zionist Camp’s videos are very serious and focused on problems that must be solved.
While the panelists all agreed that the social media campaigns were important, a recent poll indicated that traditional media, newspapers and TV, are more important than social media in helping voters decide on who will best deal with the burning issues facing Israel.
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