Leftists Demand End of Lieberman Politics

Labor Party Knesset Member Daniel Ben-Simon said that Lieberman's continued service as prime minister contradicts the national interest.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman

(TEL AVIV) - Leftist politicians are calling on Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to quit over charges that he obstructed justice by obtaining a classified document about the probe against him.

"Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert quit over lesser charges compared to what is being accumulated against Lieberman, even before an indictment was served," Meretz Chairman Haim Oron said.

Oron also harshly criticized other government ministers for doing nothing in the face of the Lieberman affair.

"The forgiveness shown by some of the people sitting in the government today who worked to facilitate Olmert's resignation apparently stems from a desire to cling to their government chair," he said. "This desire is more powerful than any other moral consideration."

Meanwhile, Labor Party Knesset Member Daniel Ben-Simon said that Lieberman's continued service as prime minister contradicts the national interest.

"With or without a probe, every day where Lieberman serves as Israel's display window constitutes direct damage to the country," he said.

Slamming his own party members, Ben-Simon said: "Every time another affair emerges in connection with this pyromaniac foreign minister, faction members get weak at the knees and their mouth dries up; we barely hear a complaint against the foreign minister."

'Lieberman rejected envoy's offer'

However, Yisrael Beiteinu Knesset Member Fania Kirshenbaum dismissed the calls for Lieberman's resignation, hinting that the new suspicions against him have to do with the popularity of the party he leads.

"Every time the party wins more Knesset seats, they find more evidence," she said. "Do you know how many people are facing probes in this country? There are no indictments here whatsoever and Lieberman should not be quitting."

Meanwhile, Lieberman's attorneys turned to the attorney general and asked that he launch an investigation in the wake of "yet another leak from Minister Lieberman's interrogation."

Sources close to Lieberman insisted Tuesday that he refused the ambassador to Belarus' offer to be given classified investigation materials. The foreign minister did no wrong, and the police only suspect the ambassador of wrongdoing and not Lieberman himself, the sources said.

"We must understand that as opposed to what the police try to portray here, Lieberman wasn't even the foreign minister back then," one close associate said. "Lieberman rejected the ambassador and did not take the materials. There is nothing in this affair and there will be nothing. Lieberman committed no offence.

Meanwhile, State Prosecutor Moshe Lador estimated Tuesday evening that a decision on Lieberman's case is expected to be taken within a few weeks one way or the other.

"I think we are talking about weeks and I hope it won't take longer," Lador said, referring to the decision on whether to file an indictment against the foreign minister.

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Source: News Agency report