Israel's new foreign minister dismisses two-state solution.

I've always said that the election of Avigdor Lieberman to the Israeli cabinet was set to put Israel on a collision course with the Obama administration, but even I never thought Lieberman would declare war so soon. But what else, at a time when Obama has made clear his intention to see a two state solution, is this.

Far-right politician Avigdor Lieberman stunned diplomats in his first speech as Israel's foreign minister yesterday when he rejected the past year of US-led negotiations and said that a previous commitment Israel made to Palestinian statehood "had no validity."

Mr Lieberman reinforced fears that his government will steer the country in a more hawkish direction when he added that concessions to Palestinians would be "mistaken". The remarks contradicted Israel's previous commitments agreed at the Annapolis conference in 2007, and drew an immediate response from Mike Hammer, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, who emphasised that the US was "committed to the establishment of a democratic Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace and security".

Expectations had been raised in recent weeks that Mr Lieberman would seek to soften his image, and that the new hardline government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu would avoid alienating the international community.

It's impossible now to even pretend that Israel is seeking peace, certainly not on the terms that the rest of the world is seeking peace; namely through a two state solution.

Israel is now playing hard ball. I am pleased that Obama has hired Hillary Clinton to be his Secretary of State as she will now be tasked with dealing with this racist; and her pro-Israel credentials are too strong for her to be easily dismissed with the usual charge of anti-Semitism.

Lieberman's stance also alienates Abbas, who has put himself out on a limb as the face of Palestinian moderation, and will leave many questioning what his "moderation" has achieved.

His spokesperson made clear his anger on the subject:

"This minister is an obstacle to peace," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, an aide to Mr Abbas. "Nothing obliges us to deal with a racist person hostile to peace."

With the election of Netanyahu and Lieberman the Israeli public have shown themselves to be out of sync with the mood which the election of Obama generated amongst the rest of the planet. Many of us hoped that, here at last, we had an American leader who would push for peace in the Middle East and would not simply reduce a world superpower to doing whatever Israel wanted, in the way in which Bush had always done.

Neither Netanyahu or Lieberman believe in a two state solution. Israel is now officially the obstacle to peace.

Obama now has a real fight on his hands. And many American politicians will fight on the side of Israel, no matter how unreasonable Netanyahu and Lieberman are being.

Israel and the Americans are now clearly on opposite sides of the fence. This is going to get ugly.

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Tags: Israel, Palestine, Obama, Netanyahu, Lieberman, Abbas