It's hard to understand why and how former Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was acquitted of corruption-related charges. Almost a year ago he was indicted in a relationship in which corruption was writ all over. The plum posts Lieberman gave Israeli diplomat Ze'ev Ben Aryeh – making him his diplomatic adviser and later ambassador to Latvia - for tipping him off about a police probe into separate corruption allegations was a bribe, not just a reward, and represented a serious conflict of interest, particularly as Lieberman had not made anyone aware of Ben Aryeh's tip-off. That confidential information Ben Aryeh passed on to Lieberman was illegal, yet the three judges who exonerated Lieberman did not find the story worthy of a criminal conviction. They did, however, agree that Lieberman had engaged in “inappropriate conduct”, meaning they knew but disregarded the fact that Lieberman was involved in more than one interest which could only have engendered corruption. Like before, Lieberman managed to get away. Lieberman has run afoul of the law for much of his political life. He was also lucky last year when Israel's attorney general decided not to charge him in a larger corruption case, which included allegations of money laundering and bribery. This is Lieberman - dogged by accusations of corruption during his career, and emerging scot-free each and every time. And now lady luck once again smiles down on Lieberman with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holding Lieberman's post open for him until this ultranationalist returns to practice the one thing he is famous for: racism. Lieberman has earned an unsavory reputation for numerous hostile statements about Israel's Arab citizens. He has a history of incendiary racist anti-Arab rhetoric with regard to Palestinians and Israeli Arabs. Lieberman has called for Gaza to be treated “like Chechnya” and urged Israel to treat its Hamas rulers “like the United States did with the Japanese in World War II.” He has shown open disdain for the moderate Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas calling him a “diplomatic terrorist” and an obstacle to peace. And he recently compared the EU's Israel policy to the attitudes of European countries toward the Jews before and during the Holocaust. Lieberman's re-entry into politics is the worst thing for US Secretary of State John Kerry right now. His return is bound to complicate the already troubled US-sponsored peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. The return of Lieberman will be a rallying cry for the far right which opposes any concessions to the Palestinians. As a settler living on occupied land where Palestinians seek statehood, Lieberman is obviously dead set against the negotiations, and his verbal broadside against them in which he said that reaching a permanent peace deal is impossible is almost like saying he does not want peace. Netanyahu needs Lieberman and his far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party which has grown into one of Israel's largest political forces and is allied with Netanyahu's right-wing Likud. But despite the ties, Netanyahu stopped short of announcing what role Lieberman would play in the government. If he does return to the foreign ministry, the cabinet and parliament must vote on his nomination which could happen by Monday. Israel's attorney general has not yet decided whether to launch an appeal against Lieberman's acquittal. He has 45 days to announce his decision. In the meantime, the fact that investigations into Lieberman have been ongoing for 12 years and have spanned nine countries shows how much this man has been in trouble with the law. He is not the sort of individual who should be responsible for the foreign ministry of any country.
