Word: yisrael
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...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 him to initially issue a feeble statement through his aides that was regarded in Turkey as an endorsement of Ayalon's actions...
...Israel Taking Down Lieberman After a lengthy corruption probe, Israeli police recommended that the state charge Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman with a battery of crimes, including bribery, fraud, money-laundering and obstruction of justice. Lieberman, head of the right-wing Yisrael Beitenu party and a polarizing figure who has been accused of racism toward Israeli Arabs, denied the allegations and said he would resign if indicted. The scandal may hurt him in a nation weary of corruption; similar accusations felled former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert...
That bluntness has earned Lieberman the devotion of Israeli hawks and the disdain of liberals, Palestinians and just about every government in the Arab world. In February's election, Lieberman's 10-year-old party, Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Is Our Home), won the third highest number of seats in the Knesset, making him a linchpin of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government. That has complicated the Obama Administration's effort to pressure Israel to freeze settlement growth and restart peace negotiations with the Palestinians. How far Netanyahu travels in Obama's direction may depend on Lieberman's willingness...
...star. He ran Netanyahu's first, successful campaign for Prime Minister, in 1996, and became his chief of staff. "Netanyahu trusted him," says Tzahi Hanegbi, who served as the Justice Minister at the time. "He was quiet, discreet and loyal." In 1999, Lieberman split from Netanyahu and Likud, forming Yisrael Beitenu, an unapologetically nationalist party that drew its support from Israel's Russian-immigrant community. The party's most explosive position is the call for all citizens to pledge allegiance to the Jewish state as a condition of the right to vote - a barely veiled challenge to the loyalty...
...settlements in the Palestinian territories and to declare its readiness to accept a "two-state solution," meaning an Israeli and a Palestinian state living side by side. But the mood in Jerusalem is defensive. At a Sunday Cabinet meeting, Israeli ministers openly defied the U.S. demands. Israeli Transport Minister Yisrael Katz told Army Radio, "I want to make it clear that the current Israeli government will not accept in any way the freezing of legal settlement activity in Judea and Samaria [the biblical name for the West Bank...