Lieberman scolds European ministers: Solve your own problems

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Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told foreign ministers of Spain and France: "Solve your own problems in Europe before you come to us with complaints. Maybe then I will be open to accepting your suggestions," in a dinner meeting with them on Sunday evening.

Lieberman emphasized to Bernard Kouchner and Miguel Moratinos that "Israel will not be the Czechoslovakia of 2010," at their meeting at the foreign ministry offices in Jerusalem.

“What about the struggle in Somalia, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Sudan?” he asked. “Instead of talking now with the Arab League about the future of a referendum in Sudan, or discussing the explosive situation in Iraq in 2012, the international community is applying great pressure on Israel.” Lieberman said that while the international community was talking about bringing about calm in the region, it would likely cause the exact opposite and “bring about an explosion like what happened after Camp David in 2000.”

The foreign minister added that he does not expect the European Union to solve all of the world's problems, but he expected the EU to solve problems on the European continent. “I don’t expect you to solve the problems of the world, but I certainly expect that before you come here to teach us how to solve conflicts, you will deal with the problems in Europe and solve those conflicts” Lieberman told French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos, who arrived on Sunday for a day of talks in Israel, followed by a day of talks in the Palestinian Authority. Lieberman said that after solving the conflicts in the Caucasus and Cyprus, and after making peace between Serbia and Kosovo, then the Europeans can come here and “we will listen to your advice.”

"In 1938 Europe placated Hitler, sacrificing Czechoslovakia instead of supporting it, and gained nothing from it," Lieberman said. "We will not be the Czechoslovakia of 2010, we will stand up for Israel's vital interests."

Following the First World War in 1918, the state of Czechoslovakia (today the Czech Republic and Slovakia) annexed the Sudetenland border region, whose population were mostly German nationals.

Twenty years later, Hitler demanded that the region be returned to Germany, and Britain and France agreed. A year later in 1939, Germany conquered the rest of Czechoslovakia proper by force.

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Original piece is http://israelinsider.net/profiles/blogs/lieberman-scolds-european?xg_source=activity

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Lieberman scolds European ministers: Solve your own problems