Liberman Says Israeli Arabs Must Be Party to Peace Agreement

Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman has said that Arab Israelis are as much a part of the regional conflict as Palestinians and Arab countries and must be taken into consideration in any future peace agreement.

“We do not have a separate conflict with the Palestinians, and anyone who claims so, does not understand what he is talking about or is being deliberately misleading,” Liberman told a parlor meeting in the central Israeli town of Kiryat Ono, the Times of Israel reported on Tuesday.

“Our conflict is with the entire Muslim world, with the entire Arab world. The conflict is three-dimensional — with the Arab countries, with the Palestinians and Israeli Arabs. And the third conflict, with Israeli Arabs, is the most difficult,” Liberman asserted.

Therefore, he continued, “the arrangement must be three-dimensional and simultaneous with the Arab League, with Israeli Arabs and with the Palestinians.”

“Any attempt to reach a separate agreement with the Palestinians or the Arabs of Israel will fail,” Liberman added.

Liberman argues that towns in the “triangle” region southeast of Haifa, including heavily populated Arab cities, should become part of a Palestinian state in exchange for Jewish communities in Yehudah and Shomron coming under Israeli sovereignty in any peace agreement.

The Yisrael Beytenu chairman has long assailed Arab MKs who support Israel’s enemies, and said on Monday it was “total madness” that they are allowed to serve in the Knesset.

Ayman Odeh, the leader of the Hadash-Ta’al Arab Israeli party and former chair of the now-defunct Joint List was not immediately available to comment.