Israel's hard-line foreign minister says that he supports paying Arab citizens to leave the country

In a manifesto of his Yisrael Beitenu party, Avigdor Lieberman says that he favors ceding Arab majority areas in northern Israel to a future Palestinian state and providing economic incentives for Arab-Israelis — about 20% of Israel's population — to encourage them to emigrate. The manifesto does not set out positions on the most difficult issues in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, including the status of Jerusalem and Israel's borders. But it does acknowledge the necessity of territorial compromise in reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians, and also with moderate Arab countries. Once a close associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Lieberman is now seen as harboring prime ministerial ambitions himself.