IT is always unnerving when a government official makes a comment, and the government then releases a statement saying that the official was expressing his personal opinion and not government policy. Such is the case of Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli Foreign Minister, who just announced that “peace is impossible” and that Israel should stop trying to make a peace treaty and simply sign on to a number of long-term economic and political agreements with the Palestinians, an approach that the latter have rejected consistently for quite some time. Certainly, there are those who are able to put aside personal feelings and advance government policies that are not necessarily to their liking, just as there are lawyers who will give their clients a full defense even though they know the client is guilty. Avigdor Lieberman is not cut from this cloth. He has a reputation for making statements that are inflammatory to the Arab population of Palestine, including backing such policies as forcing Israeli Arabs to sign loyalty oaths to the Jewish state. Clearly, his voice is not that of the Netanyahu government as his most recent statements were met by a press release insisting that his views were not policy. But what kind of policy exists when a leading member of the Netanyahu government is spouting off such counterproductive statements as that made by Lieberman. Israel's parliamentary system frequently demands that a coalition government be formed, necessitating the inclusion of far-right lunatics like Lieberman in the cabinet. But it certainly seems an impossible feat to give high-ranking positions to such people and not see their personal opinions form government policy. After all, no matter what the state policy, it is up to individuals to carry it out. When people like Lieberman are in such high-profile offices as Foreign Minister, personal opinions inevitably color the implementation of policy. Netanyahu's PR machine can make all the statements it wants about the insignificance of Lieberman's personal opinions. The proof, however, is in action, not words. __
