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Avigdor Liberman (b. June 5 1958) is an Israeli politician and head of the Yisrael Beiteinu party. Best known in Israel for his plan to redraw the Green Line border with the Palestinian Authority in such a way that the "meshulash" ("triangle") of the Wadi-Ara region (which was transferred to Israel from Jordan as part of the 1949 Armistice Agreement) will return to Arab sovereignty. He justifies his idea by arguing that the residents of the area are all Arabs who see themselves as Palestinians and therefore should be re-united with the Palestinian authority as part of establishing two separate national entities: One for Israelis and one for Palestinians.
History
Liberman was born in Moldova, and emigrated to Israel in 1978. In Israel he served in the Israel Defense Forces, and received a BA in International Relations and Political Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
From 1983 to 1988 Liberman helped found of the Zionist Forum for Soviet Jewry, and was a member of the Board of the Jerusalem Economic Corporation and the Secretary of the Jerusalem branch of the Histadrut Ovdim Le'umit ("National Workers' Union"). From 1993 to 1996 he served as Director-General of the Likud party, and from 1996 to 1997 was Director-General of the Prime Minister's office.
In 1999, he founded and led the Yisrael Beiteinu party, and was the editor of the newspaper Yoman Yisraeli.
Liberman was elected to the Knesset in 1999, and served as Chairman of the Israel-Moldova Parliamentary Friendship League.
In March 2001, Liberman was appointed as Israel's Minister of National Infrastructures, but resigned the post in March 2002. In February 2003 he was appointed Minister of Transportation. Liberman stongly opposed Israel's unilateral disengagement plan of 2004, and instead in late May of 2004 proposed a plan in which the populations and territories of Jews and Arabs, including Israeli Arabs, would be "separated". According to the plan, only those Israeli Arabs who felt "a connection with the State of Israel" and were "completely loyal to it" would be allowed to remain. On May 30 Prime Minister Ariel Sharon condemned Liberman's statements, stating "We regard Israeli Arabs as part of the State of Israel". On June 4, 2004, as the disputes over the up-coming disengagement plan grew more intense, Sharon dismissed Liberman from the cabinet.
As leader of Yisrael Beiteinu, a party largely consisting of immigrants from the former Soviet Union countries, Liberman continues to advocate for stripping Israeli citizenship of some Israeli-Arabs, and applying "loyalty tests" to those remaining. With the help of an American political consultant, Arthur Finkelstein, Yisrael Beiteinu received 12 seats in the Israeli parliment in March 2006 elections. This is partly because of a catchy slogan: "Nyet, Nyet, Da": No, No, Yes as a guide for voting for Netanyahu, Olmert, and Liberman, respectively. .
Liberman is married, with three children.
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