Israel and the ethnic cleansers

We can appreciate Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's desperation in trying to save his government -- we've been having some experience with minority governments ourselves lately -- but bringing in a party of right-wing bigots? Olmert announced yesterday he is forging a coalition with Yisrael Beiteinu, a party whose policies of ethnic cleansing bear considerable similarity to Britain's infamous National Front. And, if that wasn't bad enough, he's making the party's leader, Avigdor Lieberman, his deputy in charge of security in the Palestinian territories. Talk about putting the fox in the chicken coop.

Lieberman, founder of Yisrael Beitenu, is a Russian immigrant. This migrant suggesting how populations who have lived in Palestine for generations should be distributed is about as good an example of chutzpah as one could find.

The man is undoubtedly popular, and his party does have 11 seats in the Knesset, but to offer a racial segregationist such a position of power is more than desperation, it's sordid.