Lieberman: Israel will not be 2010's Czechoslovakia

           Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told the 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 Angel Moratinos that "Israel will not be the Czechoslovakia of 2010," at their meeting at the foreign ministry offices in Jerusalem. Lieberman stated that the international community is trying to make up for its failures in Afghanistan, Sudan and North Korea by reaching an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians within one year. "It would be better for you to talk to the Arab League about what will happen in Iraq in 2012, instead of putting pressure on Israel, which is likely to lead to an blowup like in the year 2000," Lieberman said. The foreign minister added that he does not expect the European Union to solve all of the world's problems, but it expects of it to at least solve the problems on the European continent, like the crisis in Kosovo and the conflict in Cyprus. "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." In 1918, the state of Czechoslovakia (today the two countries of Czech Republic and Slovakia) annexed the hilly and more easily defendable Sudetenland border region without conducting a referendum of its residents, who were 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. (08,46)