Word: liebermanically
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...would be the norm at a diplomatic photo op) and that Ayalon and his colleagues are not smiling at the ambassador. The symbolic humiliation of the Turkish diplomat was a well-planned if clumsy expression of the new policy of Ayalon and his boss, hard-line Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who have decried what they see as the tendency of Israeli diplomats to ingratiate themselves with foreign interlocutors. The offending Turkish TV program, Ayalon seemed to believe, was not a moment for diplomatic niceties; national pride demanded a retaliatory humiliation of the Turks. (See pictures of 60 years of Israel...
...Ayalon's defiance potentially carried a high cost. But it took a behind-the-scenes intervention of the proverbial grownup in the Israeli establishment - President Shimon Peres, who served for decades as Israel's key diplomat - to orchestrate a climbdown. Peres called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Lieberman and urged them to defuse the crisis. But domestic politics was in play: not only was Ayalon's initial action calculated to burnish the nationalist appeal of his and Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu party, but Netanyahu's need to maintain that party's support for his coalition prompted...
...week began with Turkey needlessly slapped in the face, but by Wednesday, it was the turn of Israel's Foreign Ministry to suffer a public humiliation, being forced to grovel for Ankara to accept its apology. "Those who thought that nominating Lieberman to be Foreign Minister would not create problems for Israel were once more shown to be mistaken," a senior Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity told TIME. "It was a disgrace to us all as Israelis." The Israel-Turkey relationship looks likely to absorb this week's contretemps, with neither side looking to escalate. On both sides...
Criticizing Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman's threat to join a health care filibuster, in USA Today...
...turned out to be the year of the antihero. It is the year in which Joe Lieberman gets my nod--cynical though it is--as 'American of the Year.' A Democrat of convenience, Lieberman has succeeded in doing what Benedict Arnold couldn't. In a masterful act of treachery, he retains a position of trust among the very people he betrayed...