Austria Renounces Ministry’s Lieberman Insult
Austria’s Foreign Ministry renounced a statement by the country’s defense minister in which he called Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s participation in the government “unbearable.”
“His statements do not reflect the policies of the Austrian government,” the foreign ministry said in a statement to the Austrian media.
In an interview published Sunday in the Austrian daily Die Presse, Norbert Darabos said “honestly, the fact that Minister Lieberman is a member of the Israeli government is unbearable.”
Darabos also called Israel’s threats to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities “unnecessary,” since “Iran can’t build a bomb yet.”
He said an Israeli attack on Iran “would spark an uncontrollable fire in the region and will create solidarity and empathy for Iran in the Arab world and the world at large.”
Darabos said Israel complained about Iran and the Palestinians’ unwillingness to come to the peace table in order to shift focus from “internal social issues.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO