Word: lieberman
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...reverse order, the leaders of Israel's top three political parties appeared on television the night of the Feb. 10 elections and declared victory. This was clever, since none of them had really won. Avigdor Lieberman, whose extreme anti-Arab Yisrael Beitenu party finished third, went on first. His party had surged in the final weeks and would now, he boasted, be "the key" to forming a majority coalition in the 120-seat Knesset. Maybe. Benjamin Netanyahu, whose Likud party finished second, appeared next. He had won, he said, because Likud was the leading right-wing party and conservatives...
...Israelis were both irked and entranced by the results. It had been an uninspiring campaign. There was no Barack Obama in the race; even Lieberman, the hot candidate, was a tepid speaker. For Israelis, a nation of political junkies, the aftermath will be more fun than the campaign: there will be a fascinating dance as the various players wheel and backstab in search of a governing coalition. For the rest of the world, however, the results are cause for concern. And for the Obama Administration, Israel presents an even greater foreign policy challenge than before - especially if, as expected, Lieberman...
...election-night orators, Lieberman appeared the most confident. His support had grown since the war, on the strength of Jewish anger at Israel's indigenous Arabs, some of whom had cheered Hamas and waved Palestinian flags during the fighting. Among other things, Lieberman had suggested that Israel should fight Hamas as "the U.S. did with the Japanese" - which some people saw as raising the remarkable specter of innocent Israeli Arabs interned in concentration camps. "Lieberman has created a classic European anti-immigrant party," said Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator. "Only his supporters are the immigrants, and their targets...
...rightward tilt is a blow to President Obama's hopes that a new Israeli government might be willing to make peace with the Palestinians and various Arab neighbors. Netanyahu and Lieberman are pushing for the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which Palestinians say is a main obstacle to peace, and they are adamant that Israel should hang on to the Golan Heights, which was seized from Syria in the 1967 war. Netanyahu and Lieberman also say the army ought to return to Gaza and wipe out Hamas. During the campaign, Netanyahu said, "There will be no alternative...
...become Israel's first female Premier since Golda Meir in the 1970s looks increasingly hopeless. Spurned by Netanyahu, she will turn left to Labor and other smaller parties - but the only way she can make the numbers add up to a 61-seat majority is if she entices Lieberman to join her. The drawback is that if she succeeds, Labor and the leftist parties will leave in disgust. The Arab parties, which have a total of 11 seats, are also unlikely to join a Livni-led coalition because they remain angry over the Gaza invasion. Israeli Arabs voted...