Lieberman urges political reform in Israel

ISRAELI DEFENCE Minister Avigdor Lieberman has called for major reform of the country’s political system, calling it “very complicated and very inefficient”.

He told a JNF-UK audience in London last week: “The problem [of ministers having multiple portfolios] is with our political system. We have tried many times to change it, because people are paying a high price for the coalition… The best reform is to say simply that the leader of the biggest party will become prime minister, without any bargaining.”

Currently, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also holds the foreign affairs, economy and communications portfolios.

Mr Lieberman, who was in London last week for meetings with members of the British and US governments, was speaking during a Q&A with the director of the Henry Jackson Society thinktank, Alan Mendoza, at a JNF-UK event.

Asked about Russia’s Middle East policies and President Vladimir Putin’s attempts to host Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, the Soviet-born politician said: “It is clear that our first strategic alliance is with the United States. Russia has its own interests, and we don’t have any illusions about that.

“It’s impossible to ignore Russia — and we have a huge Russian-Jewish community in Israel, and relations are certainly much better than they were when I left the Soviet Union. We have an open dialogue, with all sincerity and openness, but we have different interests. What happens today in Syria is a big game between Russia and the US — and we are not part of this game.”

Reviewing the multiple threats to Israel, Mr Lieberman said that even in the Negev, where the JNF does a great deal of work, many Bedouin were coming under the influence of Islamists.

“No doubt the biggest threat is Iran,” he said, adding that without Iran, neither Hizbollah nor Hamas would be able to function.

“Hizbollah is the biggest terror threat, bigger than Daesh, but without Iran it would be impossible for it to operate.”