Word: netanyahu
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...Gaza, a Hamas official told TIME that Netanyahu's victory was "proof that Israelis are opposed to giving the Palestinians anything." He added, "Netanyahu only believes in escalating the military solution against...
...Washington, at least, the vague outlines of an Obama-sponsored peace plan are starting to take shape. The Israeli press say that U.S. envoy Mitchell will propose a new formula to Netanyahu: an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders, excepting the large Jewish settlements around Jerusalem; having Jerusalem as the capital of both Israel and a future Palestine; the adoption of a special status for the Old City, holy to Christians, Jews and Muslims; the return of refugees to a Palestinian state, with Israel accepting some responsibility for their plight; and the presence of a multinational force in the Palestinian...
...Netanyahu may viscerally oppose this plan. Even if he does not, selling it to his right-wing coalition partners may prove impossible. They refuse to divide Jerusalem and want to plow ahead with more Jewish settlements in the West Bank. As part of a coalition dealmaker, Netanyahu pledged to allow the construction of a new settlement of 3,500 dwellings outside Jerusalem that would surround the city's Arab neighborhoods. And his choice for Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, who has pronounced anti-Arab views and is under criminal investigation for allegedly taking bribes, has left the Americans and the Europeans...
...weeks, Netanyahu struggled to build a coalition. The result is a Rube Goldberg-like contraption with 30 Cabinet ministers and seven deputy ministers. (Britain, a nation nearly 10 times the size of Israel, has only 22 Cabinet ministers.) Opposition leader Tzipi Livni, of the centrist Kadima Party, called the new government "bloated" with "ministers of nothing." A Haaretz poll shows that, with Netanyahu's leadership less than 24 hours old, 54% of Israelis are "unhappy" with his sprawling government, leading one Israeli pundit to comment (using the politician's nickname), "Bibi's period of grace lasted...
...Netanyahu does, however, have a few strong cards. His coalition passed the Knesset vote with 69 out of 120 seats, a huge margin by Israel's fractious standards. He has shown himself to be a shrewd deal spinner, and his government may stand a better chance of arm-twisting the Knesset into accepting a U.S.-sponsored peace deal than a weak, center-left government ever could. As for Lieberman's belligerent views toward Arabs, Netanyahu aides hasten to say the Premier himself will handle ties with Washington and Arab neighbors. (See pictures of life under Hamas in Gaza...