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Israel's 'traitor' du jour

The Israeli right wing considers former Foreign Ministry Director Alon Liel a traitor for advocating to pressure the Israeli government and advance voting in the United Nations in favor of a Palestinian state.

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Alon Liel, a former director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, sits during a joint news conference in Jerusalem, April 12, 2007. — MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images

Israel’s “traitor” du jour is Alon Liel, the former director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On Jan. 12, right-wing activists disseminated an audiotape from a meeting between Liel and members of Breaking the Silence. In it, Liel is heard urging them to pressure United Nations member states to vote for a Palestinian state. He is also heard saying that he has given up hope that Israel’s political establishment could change the public’s mind-set and reinstate the idea of the two-state solution on the agenda. “The political establishment is lost — lost, especially now when there’s a consensual government, with all the apparatuses, with all the spokespeople, with all the growing control over the media,” Liel said, among other things.

The conclusion, according to him, is that human rights organizations need to be proactive, initiate a move and influence local public opinion as much as possible, but mainly public opinion around the world.

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