This newspaper has never hidden its distaste for Avigdor Lieberman. He has a penchant for offensive statements and his attitudes often seem more designed to inflame Israel's critics than to achieve anything positive.

Sure enough, his appointment as defence minister has already unleashed a new round of insults. But much of this is hyperbole. Mr Lieberman was a pretty useless foreign minister, but his rather ineffectual actions belied the bogeyman rhetoric. And Israel's diplomacy carried on.

The likelihood is that the same pattern will be repeated as defence minister. This is not an appointment that many in the diaspora will feel comfortable with - nor many in Israel. But for all his strident speeches and words, Mr Lieberman craves the top job, and his behaviour in office has always - so far - been much less strident. And even were he minded to change that in his new role, he cannot act alone. He is in what remains a highly unstable coalition that Mr Netanyahu will want to maintain.

This is a bad appointment. But on past form it is not, as some would have it, a disaster.