Netanyahu names old army friend home front minister
Israel’s ex-PM Olmert gets light sentence
Collaborator is a hero
Israeli leader calls for early elections
Israel’s ex-PM Olmert considering comeback, aides say
Israel’s Peres urged to seek prime minister post
Ehud Barak says he’s quitting Israeli politics
Angling to keep his job"
Livni re-enters Israeli politics to grab the center
Israeli foreign minister charged with breach of trust
Israeli foreign minister Lieberman resigns following indictment on breach of trust, fraud
Israel to charge former minister
He's out of the way
Former Israeli foreign minister pleads not guilty
Former Israeli official blasts Netanyahu
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Diskin's Dissent
"Benjamin Netanyahu avows Jerusalem agenda" by Ian Deitch | Associated Press, October 24, 2012
JERUSALEM — Israel’s prime minister vowed Tuesday to continue building in a contested Jerusalem district, just days after European Union criticism of Jewish housing there.
Related: Settling on This Post
Benjamin Netanyahu was speaking during a visit to Gilo after Israeli approval for the construction of 800 Jewish homes there sparked a sharp condemnation from Catherine Ashton, EU foreign affairs chief. She is set to visit Israel on Wednesday.
Israel captured Gilo in the 1967 Mideast war from Jordan. Then it annexed the area to Jerusalem in a move that has not been recognized internationally. The Gilo district is close to Bethlehem in the West Bank.
Netanyahu said Jerusalem is ‘‘Israel’s eternal capital’’ during the visit to Gilo and said Israel has every right to build there.
‘‘We have built in Jerusalem, we are building in Jerusalem, and we will continue to build in Jerusalem; this is our policy, and I will continue to support building in Jerusalem,’’ Netanyahu said.
During the visit, Jerusalem’s mayor, Nir Barkat, thanked Netanyahu for the resources to allow development and growth. ‘‘We will continue to build tens of thousands of apartments throughout the city,’’ he said.
The fate of Jerusalem is one of the most emotional issues in long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, because of key sites there that are sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
Palestinians claim the eastern part of Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, along with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israel says East Jerusalem is an inseparable part of its capital, citing biblical and security reasons.
Palestinians are refusing to resume peace talks unless Israel stops building in areas they claim.
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"Netanyahu, nationalist join for election" New York Times, October 26, 2012
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday that his conservative Likud Party would run on a joint ticket with the nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu Party in January elections. The surprise joining of forces immediately shook up Israel’s political map and was apparently intended to cement Netanyahu’s chances of leading the next government.
He wasn't really under any threat, but whatever.
The move sharpened the contours of the left and right camps in Israeli politics after years during which the major-party leaders, including Netanyahu, had gravitated toward the political center. Political opponents from the center and left warned that the unification of Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu, led by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, reflected a creeping extremism that would not serve Israel.
By joining, Netanyahu and Lieberman clearly intended to strengthen their tickets and guarantee their leadership of a strong governing coalition in the coming years.
‘‘This joining of forces will give us the strength to defend Israel and the strength to make economic and social changes within the state,’’ said Netanyahu, standing alongside Lieberman at a televised news conference timed to be broadcast live on the evening news programs.
Lieberman, a Russian speaker who immigrated to Israel from Moldova in 1978, is a blunt-talking politician whose party has advocated some contentious and populist policies, like a demand for a loyalty oath in Israel because of concerns about Israel’s Arab citizens.
“We have chosen the option of national responsibility,’’ Lieberman said at the news conference.
He resigned.
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"Israeli official vows to end draft exemptions" by Aron Heller | Associated Press, November 01, 2012
JERUSALEM — Israel’s new hawkish bloc will do away with a contentious system of draft exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox men if it forms a new government, Israel’s deputy foreign minister pledged Wednesday.
If the vow is implemented, it would put the recently formed bloc on a potential collision course with a likely coalition partner linked to ultra-Orthodox Judaism.
The issue of the draft exemptions has become a major source of friction in Israel, and the outgoing government failed to meet a Supreme Court order to abolish the system. Heading into elections in January, the issue is now caught in legal limbo....
In a country where military service is compulsory for all Jewish males except the ultra-Orthodox, the draft exemptions have created widespread resentment toward the religious.
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Related: Israel Needs a Draft
Prepare for war.
Also see: Israel's Taliban
Must be where the resentment comes from.
"Obama and Netanyahu: a bad marriage that must be saved" November 17, 2012
THERE IS little doubt that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is among those bemoaning Barack Obama’s reelection. The two have had a testy relationship since Obama pressed Israel to halt settlement construction in the West Bank early in his presidency. Netanyahu’s administration responded with a diplomatic slap in the face: They announced new construction the same day Vice President Biden arrived in Israel.
Israel always does that before a U.S. official arrives. It is to let them know who is still running the show.
In the run-up to the US presidential election, Netanyahu made few efforts to hide his preference for Republican challenger Mitt Romney, who echoed his own hawkish rhetoric on Iran. (Netanyahu and Romney also have the Boston Consulting Group, financier Sheldon Adelson, and Republican pollster Arthur Finkelstein in common.) That left Obama with more reasons to distrust Netanyahu.
The common understanding between the United States is still visible in moments of crisis, such as the current violence in and near Gaza. But Obama and Netanyahu need to work harder to develop greater personal trust; the stakes in the Middle East are too high for both nations to have their leaders working through personal differences at moments such as these.
See: Obama's Trip to Israel
Netanyahu bears the greater responsibility for forging a closer relationship, because he did the most recent damage. To an extent that was highly unusual for a foreign leader, he stuck his neck out for Romney, who campaigned on the pledge that he would never allow any “daylight” between the United States and Israel. Now, Netanyahu is facing unprecedented criticism in Israel for injecting himself into an American election. A host of prominent personalities — from politicians to former heads of Israel’s intelligence agencies — have gone on record opposing Netanyahu’s statements before the US vote, particularly his criticism of Obama’s policy on Iran.
“Bibi Gambled, We’ll Pay,” the highest-circulated newspaper in Israel, the Yedioth Ahronoth, lamented after Obama’s victory.
Israelis must understand that their alliance with the United States has stood the test of time across Democratic and Republican administrations precisely because leaders have avoided taking sides. Currying favor with one party at the expense of the other is not a good strategy for the long term.
It's almost as if AIPAC never existed.
It is unclear whether Netanyahu will pay a political price for his miscalculation. He is still the man to beat in January, when Israelis go to the polls themselves. Like it or not, Obama and Netanyahu will probably have to work together in the coming years.
I'm tired of this bull when the two are in lock step.
Given the bad chemistry between the two leaders, it is vital for other senior US and Israeli officials to meet more often, far from the glare of publicity.
I'm sure they are.
In addition, more “Track II” diplomatic efforts, like the one former Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns held recently at Harvard’s Kennedy School, are essential.
The United States and Israel will have a better chance of dismantling Iran’s nuclear program if they work together. The promise of US diplomacy and the threat of an Israeli military strike could be the “good-cop, bad-cop” routine that finally convinces Iran to relent. But for that to happen, Netanyahu and Obama have to learn to trust each other.
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Related: Obama should meddle in Israel’s election
Israelis have rigged elections, too:
"Charismatic new leader winning Israelis" by Aron Heller | Associated Press, December 28, 2012
RAANANA, Israel — The charismatic new leader of Israel’s Jewish religious right is siphoning a large chunk of votes from the prime minister’s party, according to polls leading up to the Jan. 22 elections, and if the trend continues, the high-tech millionaire and former commando might emerge as a powerful voice opposing Palestinian statehood.
Though Naftali Bennett, the 40-year-old son of US immigrants, is a classic religious hardliner, comfortable in the settlements he champions, he has been able to draw on his military and entrepreneurial background to widen his appeal into secular circles as well. His sprawling home in Raanana, an upscale Tel Aviv suburb, is far from the barren hilltops of West Bank settlers who are the backbone of his support.
Okay, keep an eye on him.
Polls show his Jewish Home party becoming the third-largest in the upcoming Parliament, behind Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-Yisrael Beitenu bloc and centrist Labor. As Bennett’s party gains ground, it has steadily eaten into Netanyahu’s still-formidable lead. Several of Netanyahu’s recent moves, including a surge in settlement construction announcements, have been attributed to the ‘‘Bennett factor.’’
Philosophically, Bennett and his party would fit easily into a hardline government of the type Netanyahu is expected to form, though the political newcomer and the Israeli leader — his former boss and political mentor — have a history of bad blood that deepened during this past week.
Hmmmmmmmmm.
Bennett’s campaign has enlivened an otherwise drab election season. The Jewish Home party now has five seats in the 120-member Parliament, but polls since Bennett took over the leadership show it could win up to 15 in the election. He says his goal is to broaden the base of his party by appealing to centrist, secular voters alongside the traditional backing of settlers and their supporters.
His political message, however, does not sound centrist.
‘‘My positions are very clear: I never hide the fact that I categorically oppose a Palestinian state inside our country,’’ Bennett said in a phone interview. In the terminology of religiously devout hardliners, ‘‘our country’’ means not only Israel, but also the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which the Palestinians hope to incorporate into a future state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Bennett takes pride in his straight-talking campaign and accuses other politicians — including Netanyahu — of being ambiguous.
Bennett, a father of four, also has an image perhaps more palatable to the Tel Aviv hipsters he hopes to target: success on their secular terms.
After serving in the elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit, Bennett made a fortune in the largely secular high-tech world. In 1999, he cofounded Cyota, an antifraud software company he sold in 2005 to US-based RSA Security for $145 million. He says he is living in Raanana, rather than a settlement, for unspecified ‘‘personal reasons.’’
‘‘There is a huge gap between his appearance and his content,’’ said Amnon Abramovitch, a veteran political commentator for Israel’s Channel 2 TV. ‘‘He looks very modern, he speaks very liberally, but his messages are very extreme.’’
Political columnist Sima Kadmon said Bennett’s clean family image and modern lifestyle blind some of his supporters to his hardline positions....
Bennett rejects the barbs, saying his positions are clear and distinctly hawkish: He opposes a Palestinian state, the uprooting of settlements, and territorial concessions that most of the world deem necessary for peace. He has presented a plan that calls for the annexation of much of the West Bank territory Israel currently controls.
‘‘I say the same thing everywhere I go,’’ he insists. ‘‘The mistake is to categorize me as extreme.’’
He's right about that; it's Israeli state policy.
Bennett turned to politics after the sale of Cyota and served as Netanyahu’s chief of staff for two years. They parted ways after a mysterious falling out he will not discuss but that Israeli media have linked to Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, who wields influence in the prime minister’s inner circle.
An affair?
He and Netanyahu clashed again when Bennett, then leader of the mainstream settler group, fiercely opposed Netanyahu’s decision in late 2009 to slow settlement construction for 10 months in a US-led effort to encourage Palestinians to renew peace talks.
That's considered mainstream?
This year, he took his positions to the national political arena. Two months ago, he captured the chairmanship of the stodgy Jewish Home party from its colorless leader and set out to transform the party’s image. Bennett took his campaign everywhere from remote West Bank settlement outposts to trendy Tel Aviv bars.
Like a little Jewish Hitler.
The strategy worked, and Jewish Home started gaining in the polls. Despite past conflicts, Bennett says he and Netanyahu can work together.
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Here come the results:
"Benjamin Netanyahu appears poised for win; Divisions split opposition; hope for peace wanes" by Dan Perry | Associated Press, January 22, 2013
JERUSALEM — Benjamin Netanyahu seems poised for reelection as Israel’s prime minister in Tuesday’s voting, the result of the failure of his opponents to unite behind a viable candidate against him — and the fact that most Israelis no longer seem to believe it is possible to reach a peace settlement with the Palestinians.
I don't, either. Israel has stolen too much land.
The widely held assumption of a victory by Netanyahu comes despite his record: There is no peace process, there is growing diplomatic isolation and a slowing economy, and a key ally has been forced to step down as foreign minister because of corruption allegations.
Even so, Netanyahu has managed to convince enough Israelis that he offers a respectable choice by projecting experience, toughness, and great powers of communication in both native Hebrew and flawless American English.
He was also handed a gift by the opposition. Persistent squabbling by main figures divided among main parties in the moderate camp has made this the first election in decades without two clear opposing candidates for prime minister. Even Netanyahu’s opponents have suggested his victory is inevitable.
‘‘His rivals are fragmented,’’ said Yossi Sarid, a dovish former Cabinet minister who writes a column for the Haaretz newspaper. ‘‘He benefits by default,’’ he said.
The confusion and hopelessness that now characterize the issue of peace with the Palestinians have cost the moderates their historical campaign focus.
Many Israelis are disillusioned with the bitter experience of Israel’s unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip in 2005, which led to years of violence. Others believe Israel’s best possible offers have been made and rejected already, concluding that they cannot meet the Palestinians’ minimal demands.
Former prime minister Ehud Olmert has said that in 2008 he offered the Palestinians roughly 95 percent of the West Bank and additional territory from Israel in a ‘‘land swap.’’ He also said he offered shared control of Jerusalem, including its holy sites. The Palestinians have disputed some of Olmert’s account and suggested they could not close a deal with a leader who was by then a lame duck.
‘‘There can’t be peace because we’ve tried everything already. All the options have been exhausted. They apparently don’t want to make peace,’’ said Eli Tzarfati, a 51-year-old resident of the northern town of Migdal Haemek. ‘‘It doesn’t matter what you give them — it won’t be enough.’’
Unreal! Of course, remember, what Israelis accuse of others is something they themselves are guilty.
Tzarfati expressed what seems to be a common sentiment.
A poll conducted last week in Israel by the New Wave Polling Research Institute found that 52 percent of respondents support the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel as part of a peace agreement.
Yet 62 percent said they do not believe the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, is a partner for peace. An identical number said it is not possible to reach an agreement.
In the absence of peace talks, those who wanted to end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands once spoke of a unilateral pullout from at least some of the territories. But that idea is moot because of the Gaza pullout, which led to the territory’s takeover by Hamas militants and years of rocket fire into Israel. This situation leaves many Israelis at a loss over what to do next.
Since most of the Palestinians are now living in autonomous zones inside the West Bank and prevented from entering Israel, and violence has largely subsided, the most attractive option to Israelis seems to be ignoring the issue.
Autonomous zones that are totally controlled by Israel.
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And yes, the issue is pretty much ignored by my paper.
"Weakened Netanyahu likely to serve a 3d term; Centrist party surprises with strong showing" by Jodi Rudoren | New York Times, January 23, 2013
TEL AVIV — A weakened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emerged Wednesday from Israel’s national election likely to serve a third term, according to preliminary results and political analysts after voters on Tuesday gave a surprising second place to a new centrist party founded by a television celebrity who emphasized kitchen-table issues like class size and apartment prices.
I smell a rigging! Either that or the Israeli people are much like people in the rest of the world, and are sending a message that they want change in their s*** hole government.
For Netanyahu, who entered the race an overwhelming favorite with no obvious challenger, the outcome was a humbling rebuke as his ticket lost seats in the new Parliament. Overall, the prime minister’s conservative team came in first, but it was the center, led by the political novice Yair Lapid, 49, that emerged newly invigorated, suggesting that at the very least Israel’s rightward tilt may be stalled.
Except they still control the government.
Lapid, a telegenic celebrity whose father made a splash with his own short-lived centrist party a decade ago, based his campaign on issues that resonated with the middle class, including the need to integrate the ultra-Orthodox into the army and the workforce.
Perhaps as important, he also avoided antagonizing the right, having not emphasized traditional issues of the left, like the peace process. Like a large majority of the Israeli public, he supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but is skeptical of the Palestinian leadership’s willingness to negotiate seriously....
On Tuesday, Netanyahu implored his supporters to turn out, reading signs that voters were not embracing his message of security and his party’s conservative agenda. The day ended with Netanyahu reaching out again — this time to Lapid, offering to work with Israel’s newest kingmaker as part of the ‘‘broadest coalition possible.’’
Israel’s political hierarchy is only partly determined during an election. The next stage, when factions try to build a majority coalition, decides who will rule, how they will rule, and for how long. While Lapid has signaled a willingness to work with Netanyahu, the coalition may bring together parties with such different ideologies and agendas that the result is neither a shift to the right nor the left, but paralysis.
Still, for the center, it was a time of celebration.
‘‘The citizens of Israel today said no to politics of fear and hatred,’’ Lapid told an upscale crowd of supporters that had welcomed him with drums and dancing. ‘‘They said no to the possibility that we might splinter off into sectors, and groups and tribes and narrow interest groups. They said no to extremists, and they said no to antidemocratic behavior.’’
*****************************
The right wing and religious parties that make up Netanyahu’s current coalition combined for 60 seats, according to Israel Radio, equal to the total won by the center, left, and Arab parties, pushing the prime minister toward a partnership with Lapid and perhaps some of the groups that had been in the opposition. The left-leaning Labor Party took 15 seats and Jewish Home, a new religious-nationalist party, 11....
Jewish Home finished 4th? After all the pub from my jewspaper?
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"Deadlocked Israeli election sparks hope for peace talks" by Aron Heller and Josef Federman | Associated Press, January 24, 2013
JERUSALEM — The unexpectedly strong showing by a new centrist party in Israel’s parliamentary election has raised hopes of a revival of peace talks with Palestinians that have languished for four years under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Political newcomer Yair Lapid, the surprise kingmaker, is already being courted by a weakened Netanyahu, who needs his support to form a ruling coalition. Lapid has said he will not sit in the government unless the peace process is restarted.
But following a campaign in which the Palestinian issue was largely ignored, it remains unclear how hard Lapid will push the issue in what could be weeks of coalition talks with Netanyahu.
He won't push at all.
Tuesday’s election ended in a deadlock, with Netanyahu’s hardline religious bloc of allies and the rival bloc of centrist, secular, and Arab parties each with 60 seats in the 120-seat Parliament, according to near-complete official results.
While Netanyahu, as head of the largest single party in Parliament, is poised to remain prime minister, it appears impossible for him to cobble together a majority coalition without reaching across the aisle.
Lapid, whose Yesh Atid — or There is a Future — captured 19 seats, putting it in second place, is the most likely candidate to join him. In a gesture to Netanyahu, Lapid said there would not be a ‘‘blocking majority,’’ in which opposition parties prevent the prime minister from forming a government. The comment virtually guarantees that Netanyahu will be prime minister, with Lapid a major partner.
Netanyahu said Wednesday he would work to create a wide coalition. He said the election proved ‘‘the Israeli public wants me to continue leading the country’’ and put together ‘‘as broad a coalition as possible.’’
He said the next government would pursue three major domestic policy goals: to bring ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, who are routinely granted draft exemptions, into the military; to provide affordable housing; and to change the current fragmented multiparty system, which often gives smaller coalition partners outsize strength.
But Netanyahu only alluded to peacemaking in vague terms, saying coalition talks would focus on ‘‘security and diplomatic responsibility.’’ He took no questions from reporters.
His comments were aimed at Lapid, a former TV talk-show host who has portrayed himself as an average Israeli and champion of a middle class trying to make ends meet.
Though committed to pursuing peace, Lapid’s campaign focused heavily on pocketbook issues, raising speculation that Lapid might abandon the peace agenda if he can extract other concessions from Netanyahu.
Looks like he got pushed.
In an interview last week, Lapid criticized Netanyahu’s handling of peace efforts, saying he was committed to restarting negotiations and would not serve as a ‘‘fig leaf’’ in a hardline government.
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"Israeli election pits not just left vs. right, but Tel Aviv vs. Jerusalem" January 25, 2013
In the wake of Israel’s parliamentary election on Tuesday, much has been said about whether the “left” gained ground against the “right.”
I'm tired of false paradigms when they are all Zionists.
Same thing in AmeriKa. Two factions, one war party.
Some pundits have even argued that conservatives, lead by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, shed a significant number of seats and are now in a dead heat with liberals. But that’s an American way of looking at things. A more useful way to view the election is as a victory of Tel Aviv — and its young, tech-savvy work force — over ultra-religious voters in Jerusalem. At the least, this development looks far healthier for the country’s politics than the widely anticipated victory of a coalition of religious parties and hard-liners.
The surprisingly strong showing of political newcomer Yair Lapid, the anchor of a highly rated Friday night news show, was only a surprise because pollsters relied on land-line surveys that missed the cellphone-only generation that makes up the backbone of Lapid’s support.
Makes one wonder why Ron Paul did so lousy here -- or not.
Lapid campaigned on a platform of ending special treatment for the ultra-Orthodox, who are exempted from military service and who often raise large families on public subsidies. This is a huge political issue that previous generations of Israeli politicians have avoided for decades. A key battle over Israel’s future is about to begin.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that Lapid’s rising political star will have an immediate effect on the prospects for peace with Palestinians, a critical issue for the United States. Lapid appears likely to be a junior partner in a coalition government led by Netanyahu. And while Lapid, a secular centrist, favors a two-state solution, he still opposes the kind of compromises that Israel would have to make to bring one about, such as allowing East Jerusalem to become capital of a Palestinian state. The election result, then, preserves an unsatisfying status quo.
Rig job! And if so, how is Netanyahu weakened?
Still, Lapidis far more promising as a potential peacemaker than Naftali Bennett, head of the Jewish Home Party, who has pledged to do whatever it takes to prevent the Palestinians from getting a state. Bennett, not Lapid, was expected to be the big winner in this week’s election. But his party only took 11 seats, compared to 19 for Lapid’s party. Shai Feldman, director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University, summarizes the message sent by a significant chunk of Israel’s electorate like this: “We are centrists, and we are not going to allow the extreme right to form a narrow majority.”
Peace with Palestinians may not be a top priority for Israel’s young cellphone generation. But the shift in the center of gravity toward these voters — rather than toward hard-liners or toward religious voters who see Israeli-occupied territories as land given by God only to the Jewish people — offers a measure of hope to those who wish to see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resolved.
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Their only hope:
Abbas reaches out after Israeli vote
Yair Lapid, leader of the moderate Yesh Atid party, is expected to be influential in setting the priorities of the next government. In recent public appearances, he has barely mentioned the long-stalled negotiations on a Palestinian state, focusing instead on domestic economic concerns."
Not a shove.
"Israeli parties close in on coalition deal" by Ian Deitch | Associated Press, March 15, 2013
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed Thursday to form a new coalition government that is expected to try to curb years of preferential treatment for the country’s ultra-Orthodox minority and may push for restarting Middle East peace efforts. But a last-minute snag over the title of his top partners prevented the plan from being formalized.
The new coalition would be the first in a decade to exclude ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties. It includes two new rising stars in Israeli politics who have vowed to end a controversial system of draft exemptions and generous welfare subsidies granted to tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox seminary students.
‘‘The next term will be one of the most challenging in the history of the state,’’ Netanyahu told his Likud-Yisrael Beitenu parliamentary faction Thursday, shortly before the deal was expected to be signed. ‘‘We are facing great security and diplomatic challenges.’’
After weeks of deadlock, Netanyahu wrapped up coalition negotiations overnight with Yesh Atid and the Jewish Home, a party aligned with West Bank settlers.
Later Thursday, however, Yesh Atid and Jewish Home accused Netanyahu of reneging on a promise to appoint their leaders as deputy prime ministers and all sides were in talks to resolve the dispute. The prime minister’s office did not immediately comment on the allegation.
The issue was not expected to be a deal-breaker and an agreement was still expected to be signed within a day so that the new government could be sworn in by Monday, just two days before President Obama is to arrive for his first visit as US president.
Significant progress on talks on the peace front could prove to be more difficult than other domestic issues, given bitter disagreements among coalition members as well as deep differences with the Palestinians.
Nonetheless, Netanyahu’s senior partner, the centrist Yesh Atid party, is vowing to at least make an effort to restart negotiations. The peace process remained frozen throughout Netanyahu’s previous four-year term, when his right-wing bloc partnered with other hard-line and ultra-Orthodox factions.
‘‘We have to begin talks with the Palestinians immediately. We need to sit at the negotiation table. We haven’t sat there for four years,’’ Yael German of Yesh Atid, who is expected to serve as the new health minister, told Israel’s Army Radio. ‘‘Let’s sit and proceed toward a peace agreement. It is essential.”
Although Netanyahu’s bloc emerged as the biggest faction in the Jan. 22 election with 31 seats, he struggled to form a coalition with the necessary 61-seat majority in the 120-member Parliament. His new coalition is expected to control 68 seats.
The negotiations had stalled over several thorny issues, including the division of key Cabinet portfolios and plans to reform the draft.
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"Netanyahu wants vote on any peace deal; Critics say plan could impede an agreement" by Isabel Kershner | New York Times, May 03, 2013
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Thursday that any peace agreement with the Palestinians should be put to a referendum, a move that some Israelis view as a potential obstacle to a deal even as Secretary of State John Kerry works intently to renew long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Netanyahu’s statement came as his special envoy, Isaac Molho, and Tzipi Livni, Israel’s minister of justice, who holds a special portfolio dealing with the peace process in the new government, were in Washington for a meeting with Kerry. An Israeli government official said the trip was meant chiefly to update the parties and suggested that it was not indicative of any breakthrough.
The Israeli envoys were scheduled to meet later Thursday with Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, in New York.
As part of the peace effort, Kerry embraced a proposal earlier this week by the Arab League to revive the Arab Peace Initiative, introduced in 2002, and to ease its demand that Israel return to its pre-1967 boundaries by accepting the possibility of minor and mutually agreed-upon land swaps.
But Netanyahu has not endorsed the idea of land swaps and rejects any mention of the 1967 lines as the basis for talks. He has not commented on the new Arab League proposal but has reiterated his stance in recent days that talks should resume with no preconditions.
Except it is not a new proposal.
The Palestinians are not opposed to Israel’s holding a referendum and plan to hold one of their own should the sides arrive at an agreement.
But Netanyahu’s remarks in favor of a referendum, widely viewed as a nod to rightists in his governing coalition who are pressing for new legislation on the matter, came at the start of a meeting in Jerusalem with Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter of Switzerland.
‘‘There are a few things that I think we can learn from you, and one of them is the referendum,’’ Netanyahu told Burkhalter. ‘‘Not for every issue; not on every point of debate; but on one thing: That is, if we get to a peace agreement with the Palestinians, I’d like to bring it to a referendum. And I’d like to talk to you about your experiences with that, and many other things.’’
Burkhalter replied that Netanyahu was welcome to visit Switzerland any time and learn about that country’s experience with referendums.
I thought Switzerland was neutral.
Left-leaning Israeli supporters of a peace deal have long argued that a referendum could impede the leadership’s ability to seal a treaty with Palestinians.
Livni, a former foreign minister and chief negotiator with the Palestinians under the government led by Ehud Olmert, Netanyahu’s predecessor, has publicly opposed the idea of a referendum. Livni now leads her own party, which is considered dovish on peace issues.
She told Israel’s Army Radio a few days ago....
Who cares what she has to say?
Israeli supporters of a referendum, including many who oppose a large-scale Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories, argue that a popular vote is an important means of establishing national consensus and legitimacy for what would inevitably be a hotly contested accord involving the removal of tens of thousands of Israeli settlers from their West Bank homes.
Israel Harel, a leading intellectual of the settlement movement, wrote of the settlers on Thursday in Haaretz, a liberal Israeli newspaper, ‘‘On such a crucial matter of their very existence and of their Jewish and Zionist identity and faith they will not agree to their own removal unless they are convinced that it truly is the will of the nation.’’
The debate over the referendum was rekindled in Israel after reports that Naftali Bennett, a minister whose Jewish Home Party opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state, was soliciting the support of Yair Lapid, the finance minister and leader of the centrist Yesh Atid Party, for new legislation.
Lapid, who says he supports a two-state solution but not concessions on Jerusalem, has not yet declared his party’s position on the referendum issue.
And that is the centrist peacenik, blah, blah, blah.
Bennett is seeking to broaden and more deeply anchor legislation approved in 2010 requiring any peace deal involving the ceding of territory annexed by Israel — namely East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights — to be put to a national referendum unless it won the support of two-thirds of the members of Parliament.
Bennett would like to see such legislation extended to include the West Bank, where Israeli law does not apply. Israel unilaterally withdrew its forces from Gaza in 2005 and destroyed all its settlements there without a referendum.
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And about the reelected prime minister:
"Israeli leader takes heat as expense account skyrockets; Netanyahu’s lavish life irks Israelis as taxes rise, benefits fall" by Aron Heller | Associated Press, May 15, 2013
JERUSALEM — For years, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been saddled with an image of a cigar-smoking, cognac-drinking socialite. Now a disclosure about his soaring spending on housekeeping, furniture, clothing, and other expenses is increasing pressure on him in a country whose leaders once were known for washing their own dishes and taking out the garbage.
The uproar, which began with a TV station’s report that Netanyahu spent $127,000 in public funds for a special sleeping cabin on a recent five-hour flight to London, fuels criticism that he is out of touch with average Israelis who are struggling with tax increases amid a huge budget deficit.
All leaders are out-of-touch elites, save for the very rare one.
Netanyahu’s expenses have soared nearly 80 percent since he took office in 2009, totaling about $905,000 last year, according to a civil liberties group that obtained government figures after filing a freedom of information request.
Government service means expen$e account!
His spending on catering, housekeeping, cleaning, furniture, clothing, and makeup all doubled during the four-year period, according to the group, called the Movement for Freedom of Information.
Netanyahu and his family split their time among three homes, including an official Jerusalem residence, a private apartment in Jerusalem, and a villa in the upscale coastal town of Caesarea.
Although Netanyahu was reelected in January, his victory margin was much narrower than expected. The vote followed a protest movement against Israel’s high cost of living and widening gaps between rich and poor, and the campaign focused largely on domestic economic issues.
The new national budget, passed Monday, increases taxes on income, sales, and real estate while cutting family subsidies and medical benefits. Additional taxes were slapped on cigarettes, alcohol, and luxury goods.
Against this backdrop, veteran Israeli political reporter Shimon Shiffer recounted in the Yediot Ahronot daily that Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, are always accompanied abroad by hairdressers and makeup artists. On a recent flight with Netanyahu, he said, he saw two young men holding large bags.
‘‘For a moment, under the influence of movies I’d seen about things that can happen in the American president’s plane, I thought that it might be the suitcase containing the codes to operate the nuclear weapons that Israel allegedly possesses,’’ he wrote. ‘‘A brief investigation turned up slightly less heroic results: The two men were hairdressers who had been flown . . . to make sure his hair was properly styled and brushed.’’
In a statement, the prime minister’s office said the figures included expenses for events and working meetings that took place at the official residence.
Israeli leaders were once lauded for their modesty. Prime ministers lived in humble homes and took the bus to work. But as Israel has evolved from its socialist, agrarian roots to an affluent, high-tech power, its leaders have also taken a liking to the spoils of office.
Netanyahu isn’t the first leader to be criticized by Israelis for living it up. Former defense minister Ehud Barak angered his Labor party supporters with a lavish lifestyle that included buying a Tel Aviv apartment reportedly worth more than $10 million.
He didn't get the job back?
And Ehud Olmert, who served as prime minister before Netanyahu, was known for his love of such items as fancy pens and cigars.
--more--"
Related: Olmert Indicted by Israeli Court
Must be why he didn't run.
Their only hope:
Abbas reaches out after Israeli vote
Yair Lapid, leader of the moderate Yesh Atid party, is expected to be influential in setting the priorities of the next government. In recent public appearances, he has barely mentioned the long-stalled negotiations on a Palestinian state, focusing instead on domestic economic concerns."
Not a shove.
"Israeli parties close in on coalition deal" by Ian Deitch | Associated Press, March 15, 2013
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed Thursday to form a new coalition government that is expected to try to curb years of preferential treatment for the country’s ultra-Orthodox minority and may push for restarting Middle East peace efforts. But a last-minute snag over the title of his top partners prevented the plan from being formalized.
The new coalition would be the first in a decade to exclude ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties. It includes two new rising stars in Israeli politics who have vowed to end a controversial system of draft exemptions and generous welfare subsidies granted to tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox seminary students.
‘‘The next term will be one of the most challenging in the history of the state,’’ Netanyahu told his Likud-Yisrael Beitenu parliamentary faction Thursday, shortly before the deal was expected to be signed. ‘‘We are facing great security and diplomatic challenges.’’
After weeks of deadlock, Netanyahu wrapped up coalition negotiations overnight with Yesh Atid and the Jewish Home, a party aligned with West Bank settlers.
Later Thursday, however, Yesh Atid and Jewish Home accused Netanyahu of reneging on a promise to appoint their leaders as deputy prime ministers and all sides were in talks to resolve the dispute. The prime minister’s office did not immediately comment on the allegation.
The issue was not expected to be a deal-breaker and an agreement was still expected to be signed within a day so that the new government could be sworn in by Monday, just two days before President Obama is to arrive for his first visit as US president.
Significant progress on talks on the peace front could prove to be more difficult than other domestic issues, given bitter disagreements among coalition members as well as deep differences with the Palestinians.
Nonetheless, Netanyahu’s senior partner, the centrist Yesh Atid party, is vowing to at least make an effort to restart negotiations. The peace process remained frozen throughout Netanyahu’s previous four-year term, when his right-wing bloc partnered with other hard-line and ultra-Orthodox factions.
‘‘We have to begin talks with the Palestinians immediately. We need to sit at the negotiation table. We haven’t sat there for four years,’’ Yael German of Yesh Atid, who is expected to serve as the new health minister, told Israel’s Army Radio. ‘‘Let’s sit and proceed toward a peace agreement. It is essential.”
Although Netanyahu’s bloc emerged as the biggest faction in the Jan. 22 election with 31 seats, he struggled to form a coalition with the necessary 61-seat majority in the 120-member Parliament. His new coalition is expected to control 68 seats.
The negotiations had stalled over several thorny issues, including the division of key Cabinet portfolios and plans to reform the draft.
--more--"
"Netanyahu wants vote on any peace deal; Critics say plan could impede an agreement" by Isabel Kershner | New York Times, May 03, 2013
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Thursday that any peace agreement with the Palestinians should be put to a referendum, a move that some Israelis view as a potential obstacle to a deal even as Secretary of State John Kerry works intently to renew long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Netanyahu’s statement came as his special envoy, Isaac Molho, and Tzipi Livni, Israel’s minister of justice, who holds a special portfolio dealing with the peace process in the new government, were in Washington for a meeting with Kerry. An Israeli government official said the trip was meant chiefly to update the parties and suggested that it was not indicative of any breakthrough.
The Israeli envoys were scheduled to meet later Thursday with Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, in New York.
As part of the peace effort, Kerry embraced a proposal earlier this week by the Arab League to revive the Arab Peace Initiative, introduced in 2002, and to ease its demand that Israel return to its pre-1967 boundaries by accepting the possibility of minor and mutually agreed-upon land swaps.
But Netanyahu has not endorsed the idea of land swaps and rejects any mention of the 1967 lines as the basis for talks. He has not commented on the new Arab League proposal but has reiterated his stance in recent days that talks should resume with no preconditions.
Except it is not a new proposal.
The Palestinians are not opposed to Israel’s holding a referendum and plan to hold one of their own should the sides arrive at an agreement.
But Netanyahu’s remarks in favor of a referendum, widely viewed as a nod to rightists in his governing coalition who are pressing for new legislation on the matter, came at the start of a meeting in Jerusalem with Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter of Switzerland.
‘‘There are a few things that I think we can learn from you, and one of them is the referendum,’’ Netanyahu told Burkhalter. ‘‘Not for every issue; not on every point of debate; but on one thing: That is, if we get to a peace agreement with the Palestinians, I’d like to bring it to a referendum. And I’d like to talk to you about your experiences with that, and many other things.’’
Burkhalter replied that Netanyahu was welcome to visit Switzerland any time and learn about that country’s experience with referendums.
I thought Switzerland was neutral.
Left-leaning Israeli supporters of a peace deal have long argued that a referendum could impede the leadership’s ability to seal a treaty with Palestinians.
Livni, a former foreign minister and chief negotiator with the Palestinians under the government led by Ehud Olmert, Netanyahu’s predecessor, has publicly opposed the idea of a referendum. Livni now leads her own party, which is considered dovish on peace issues.
She told Israel’s Army Radio a few days ago....
Who cares what she has to say?
Israeli supporters of a referendum, including many who oppose a large-scale Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories, argue that a popular vote is an important means of establishing national consensus and legitimacy for what would inevitably be a hotly contested accord involving the removal of tens of thousands of Israeli settlers from their West Bank homes.
Israel Harel, a leading intellectual of the settlement movement, wrote of the settlers on Thursday in Haaretz, a liberal Israeli newspaper, ‘‘On such a crucial matter of their very existence and of their Jewish and Zionist identity and faith they will not agree to their own removal unless they are convinced that it truly is the will of the nation.’’
The debate over the referendum was rekindled in Israel after reports that Naftali Bennett, a minister whose Jewish Home Party opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state, was soliciting the support of Yair Lapid, the finance minister and leader of the centrist Yesh Atid Party, for new legislation.
Lapid, who says he supports a two-state solution but not concessions on Jerusalem, has not yet declared his party’s position on the referendum issue.
And that is the centrist peacenik, blah, blah, blah.
Bennett is seeking to broaden and more deeply anchor legislation approved in 2010 requiring any peace deal involving the ceding of territory annexed by Israel — namely East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights — to be put to a national referendum unless it won the support of two-thirds of the members of Parliament.
Bennett would like to see such legislation extended to include the West Bank, where Israeli law does not apply. Israel unilaterally withdrew its forces from Gaza in 2005 and destroyed all its settlements there without a referendum.
--more--"
And about the reelected prime minister:
"Israeli leader takes heat as expense account skyrockets; Netanyahu’s lavish life irks Israelis as taxes rise, benefits fall" by Aron Heller | Associated Press, May 15, 2013
JERUSALEM — For years, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been saddled with an image of a cigar-smoking, cognac-drinking socialite. Now a disclosure about his soaring spending on housekeeping, furniture, clothing, and other expenses is increasing pressure on him in a country whose leaders once were known for washing their own dishes and taking out the garbage.
The uproar, which began with a TV station’s report that Netanyahu spent $127,000 in public funds for a special sleeping cabin on a recent five-hour flight to London, fuels criticism that he is out of touch with average Israelis who are struggling with tax increases amid a huge budget deficit.
All leaders are out-of-touch elites, save for the very rare one.
Netanyahu’s expenses have soared nearly 80 percent since he took office in 2009, totaling about $905,000 last year, according to a civil liberties group that obtained government figures after filing a freedom of information request.
Government service means expen$e account!
His spending on catering, housekeeping, cleaning, furniture, clothing, and makeup all doubled during the four-year period, according to the group, called the Movement for Freedom of Information.
Netanyahu and his family split their time among three homes, including an official Jerusalem residence, a private apartment in Jerusalem, and a villa in the upscale coastal town of Caesarea.
Although Netanyahu was reelected in January, his victory margin was much narrower than expected. The vote followed a protest movement against Israel’s high cost of living and widening gaps between rich and poor, and the campaign focused largely on domestic economic issues.
The new national budget, passed Monday, increases taxes on income, sales, and real estate while cutting family subsidies and medical benefits. Additional taxes were slapped on cigarettes, alcohol, and luxury goods.
Against this backdrop, veteran Israeli political reporter Shimon Shiffer recounted in the Yediot Ahronot daily that Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, are always accompanied abroad by hairdressers and makeup artists. On a recent flight with Netanyahu, he said, he saw two young men holding large bags.
‘‘For a moment, under the influence of movies I’d seen about things that can happen in the American president’s plane, I thought that it might be the suitcase containing the codes to operate the nuclear weapons that Israel allegedly possesses,’’ he wrote. ‘‘A brief investigation turned up slightly less heroic results: The two men were hairdressers who had been flown . . . to make sure his hair was properly styled and brushed.’’
In a statement, the prime minister’s office said the figures included expenses for events and working meetings that took place at the official residence.
Israeli leaders were once lauded for their modesty. Prime ministers lived in humble homes and took the bus to work. But as Israel has evolved from its socialist, agrarian roots to an affluent, high-tech power, its leaders have also taken a liking to the spoils of office.
Netanyahu isn’t the first leader to be criticized by Israelis for living it up. Former defense minister Ehud Barak angered his Labor party supporters with a lavish lifestyle that included buying a Tel Aviv apartment reportedly worth more than $10 million.
He didn't get the job back?
And Ehud Olmert, who served as prime minister before Netanyahu, was known for his love of such items as fancy pens and cigars.
--more--"
Related: Olmert Indicted by Israeli Court
Must be why he didn't run.
