Lieberman: We Just Want a Normal Life

“We are not looking for confrontation. We are looking for a positive way to continue normal life, also in Judea and Samaria.”

In a series of recent radio interviews, Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, conceded that there is a de facto settlement freeze because Israel does not want to hinder the peace process. He also said that Israelis are not looking for war or friction, but for a normal life.

We are open, we want to reach understandings, agreements, also based on previous agreements and understandings, and we will do our best. I think it will take more than one meeting, but I certainly would like to be optimistic that we can do it.

This is evidence that Israel, unlike the Palestinians, Israelis want to work toward peace without preconditions. He also commented on Jewish and Arab residents living in Jerusalem.

There are no understandings that prohibit Jews from building in the eastern part of the city. I would like to tell you some facts that people, for some reason, ignore. Today, in the western part of the city, in Jewish neighborhoods, thousands of Arabs live – they rent apartments, they buy apartments, they build apartments. Private people initiate a private project, purchase land legally, acquire all the necessary permits from the Planning Commission, and the courts also confirm that everything is according to law.

Considering how much of an extremist the media would make him out to be, it looks like Lieberman is more of a peaceful realist. On the other hand, Hamas just wants to kill Jews.