61 Facts About Avigdor Lieberman

Avigdor Lieberman entered the Knesset in 1999, and has served in numerous roles in the government, including as Minister of National Infrastructure, Minister of Transportation, and Minister of Strategic Affairs.

Avigdor Lieberman served as Deputy Prime Minister under Prime Ministers Ehud Olmert and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Avigdor Lieberman served under Netanyahu as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2012 and 2013 to 2015 and as Minister of Defense from 2016 to 2018.

Avigdor Lieberman is the founder and leader of the secular nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party, whose electoral base initially consisted overwhelmingly of Russian-speaking immigrants from the former Soviet Union, but later attracted broader support.

Avigdor Lieberman has stated his opposition to forming a coalition with religious parties and refused to join Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition in April 2019.

Avigdor Lieberman was replaced in the Knesset by Elina Bardach-Yalov when he became the finance minister.

Avigdor Lieberman is a polarizing figure in Israeli politics due to his hardliner positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Avigdor Lieberman's name is associated with the 2004 Lieberman Plan, which advocates land swaps between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and the barring of Arab Israelis from Israeli citizenship unless they swear a loyalty oath to Israel.

Avigdor Lieberman is nonetheless known for rhetoric considered violent and hawkish in times of military escalation.

Evet Lvovich Lieberman was born to a Russian-speaking Jewish family in Chisinau, Moldavian SSR, Soviet Union.

Avigdor Lieberman's father Lev was a writer who had served in the Red Army and spent seven years in a Siberian exile under Joseph Stalin's rule, where he met his wife Esther.

Avigdor Lieberman's parents imbued him with a strong secular Jewish identity and consciously taught him only Yiddish up until the age of three.

Avigdor Lieberman was conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces, and was only obligated to do one year of active service instead of three, during which he served in the IDF military government in Hebron.

Jamal Zahalka, an Arab Knesset member from Balad who was a student at the time and active in Arab groups, claimed that he remembers Avigdor Lieberman as yelling a lot but avoiding any of the rough action.

Avigdor Lieberman denied this and called the publication an "orchestrated provocation".

Avigdor Lieberman stated that despite having lived there for so long he is willing to leave his home as part of a peace agreement.

In breaks between government stints, Avigdor Lieberman has engaged in business endeavors such as importing wood from the former Soviet Union into Israel, through which he amassed a fortune.

Avigdor Lieberman speaks Russian, Romanian, Hebrew, Yiddish and English.

Avigdor Lieberman was scheduled to continue his travels to the United States, but cancelled that portion of the trip in order to attend the funeral and sit shiva.

From 1993 to 1996, following Netanyahu's election as party leader, Avigdor Lieberman served as Director-General of the Likud party.

In 1997, Avigdor Lieberman resigned from Likud after Prime Minister Netanyahu granted concessions to the Palestinians in the Wye River Memorandum, and expressed disappointment when Yisrael BaAliyah, a new immigrant party headed by Natan Sharansky did not quit the coalition government in protest.

In 1999, Avigdor Lieberman formed the Yisrael Beiteinu party to create a platform for Soviet immigrants who supported a hard line in negotiations with the Palestinians.

Avigdor Lieberman served on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and State Control Committee, and as Chairman of the Israel-Moldova Parliamentary Friendship League.

In March 2001, Avigdor Lieberman was appointed Minister of National Infrastructure, but resigned in March 2002.

In February 2003, Avigdor Lieberman was appointed Minister of Transport, and resigned from the Knesset to take a seat in the Cabinet.

Avigdor Lieberman maintained leadership of the party and returned to the Knesset in 2006.

In May 2004, Avigdor Lieberman was dismissed from the cabinet by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon due to his opposition to the Gaza disengagement, and Yisrael Beiteinu left the government in June in protest of the disengagement.

Avigdor Lieberman advocated that Israel join the European Union and NATO.

Avigdor Lieberman resigned his cabinet position and Yisrael Beiteinu left the coalition in January 2008.

Avigdor Lieberman was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister.

Avigdor Lieberman resigned from the Knesset under the Norwegian Law, allowing Yulia Malinovsky to replace him.

Avigdor Lieberman has attracted interest of voters from Israel's business community.

Avigdor Lieberman noted that Israel must abide by the road map for peace as a first phase for furtherance of the negotiations process as well as by the two accompanying Tenet and Zinni documents.

Avigdor Lieberman quit Olmert government due to his opposition to the Annapolis Conference.

In early May 2009, Avigdor Lieberman visited Rome, Paris, Prague, and other cities.

Avigdor Lieberman met with his foreign minister counterparts, such as Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany, and he paid his respects at Berlin's Holocaust memorial, laying a wreath at the 19,000-square-meter monument.

At a press conference in Italy, Avigdor Lieberman stated that the government's goal was not to produce slogans or make pompous declarations, but to reach concrete results.

In September 2009, Avigdor Lieberman toured Africa along with businessmen and officials from the Foreign Ministry, Finance Ministry, Defense Ministry, and National Security Council in an attempt to strengthen economic and trade ties and discuss the Iranian nuclear program.

Avigdor Lieberman sought to strengthen ties with countries in Eastern and Central Europe.

In June 2016, Avigdor Lieberman was appointed Israel's Minister of Defense, as a result of his party joining the government coalition.

Avigdor Lieberman resigned on 14 November 2018 in protest of the ceasefire with Hamas.

In late May 2004, Avigdor Lieberman unveiled the Avigdor Lieberman Plan, proposing that the populations and territories of Israeli Jews and Arabs, including some Arab citizens of Israel, would be "separated".

Avigdor Lieberman wrote in a letter to The Jewish Week that he "advocates the creation of a viable Palestinian state", and told The Washington Post that he would agree to the evacuation of Nokdim "if there really will be a two-state solution".

Avigdor Lieberman stated in the Knesset that "reality changes" and that his shift had occurred over the last few years.

On 5 January 2014, Avigdor Lieberman again brought up his plan, saying that he would not support any peace plan that did not include such "an exchange".

Avigdor Lieberman said that when he talks about it, he refers to the Triangle and Wadi Ara.

Avigdor Lieberman proposed that Israel's citizens should sign a loyalty oath or lose their right to vote.

The comment was attacked as racist by Eitan Cabel, a Labor party representative, and Ahmad Tibi, leader of the Arab party Ta'al and one-time advisor to Yasser Arafat, who demanded that "a criminal investigation be initiated against Avigdor Lieberman for violating the law against incitement and racism".

In 1998, news reports stated that Avigdor Lieberman suggested the bombing of the Aswan Dam in retaliation for Egyptian support for Yasser Arafat.

Avigdor Lieberman accused the two of them of acting like "a battered wife".

Avigdor Lieberman explained his belief that the President and Prime Minister were wrong to ask forgiveness from Mubarak in that Egypt had provoked Israel just days earlier by identifying Israel as the enemy in a massive military exercise and that caricatures in the Egyptian media are akin to Nazi propaganda.

Avigdor Lieberman's suggestion led to confrontation between Avigdor Lieberman and Arab-Israeli MKs Ahmed Tibi, Jamal Zahalka, Taleb el-Sana, Abdelmalek Dahamsha as well as then opposition leader Shimon Peres.

On 24 September 2001, Avigdor Lieberman acknowledged in the Jerusalem District Court that he hit a twelve-year-old youth from Tekoa, who had hit his son.

Avigdor Lieberman confessed to the crime and plead guilty as part of a plea bargain.

The judge ultimately ruled that Avigdor Lieberman must pay the child a compensation of 10,000 shekels, and an additional fine of 7,500 shekels.

Avigdor Lieberman allegedly received millions of shekels from various entrepreneurs while serving as member of Knesset; under Israeli law, MKs are not allowed to receive any payment beyond their salary.

Avigdor Lieberman was under investigation for receiving a bribe from Austrian-Jewish businessman Martin Schlaff.

Avigdor Lieberman denied all allegations of wrongdoing in these cases, and claims that the police are conspiring against him.

On 2 April 2009, Avigdor Lieberman was questioned by police on suspicion of corruption for at least seven hours at the national squad headquarters in central Israel.

Avigdor Lieberman claimed the investigation has been dragged out, and had filed a petition to the court requesting a speedy process.

Avigdor Lieberman returned to his position as foreign minister on 11 November 2013, after the Israeli cabinet had approved his re-appointment to the office the previous day.