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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QzmC9-SLvs

Many have said Obama's talk on settlements is tougher than past presidents'. That could be another thread and subject of debate itself.

So, does anyone have any thoughts on the message we are sending having Clinton meet with Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's FM? Should we have denied him contact with our officials until he himself complied with international law? 

Does Clinton's meeting with Lieberman appear to reverse our position against settlements or is this a way to somehow advance peace and international law?

Things to consider:

• He is a settler "from" Nokdim himself. 
• He is part of the Netanyhu government that won't discuss a reasonable two-state solution.
•  He has called for the death penalty for any Arab Knesset member found to be collaborating with Hamas.
• He has supports a loyalty oath for Palestinian Israelis and wants to ban Nakba commemmoration.
• He ignores the Annapolis agreement in favor of teh earlier, less specific Roadmap, to which Israel has 14 "reservations" that essentially gut it.
•  He was a member of the Kach party which was banned in 1988 for inciting racism.

Quotable quotes:

  "It would be better to drown these prisoners (~11,000 people!!) in the Dead Sea if possible, since that's the lowest point in the world." (Avigdor Lieberman, 7 July 2003)
This is the rule rather than the exception for this guy. He is openly for ethnic cleansing where other government officials in recent years have only made veiled threats and cloaked action in some well-meaning and acceptable term like "security measures."

"At the end of the Second World War, not only the criminals were executed at the Nuremberg Trials, but also those who collaborated with them. I hope that this will be the fate of the collaborators in this house." (May 2006- Lieberman talking about Arab Knesset members who negotiate with Hamas)

 http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2009/06/18/lieberman-meets-clinton/

 http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/news/1/9704-fascism-nazism-and-avigdor-lieberman.html

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1878741,00.html