Israel Hopes for U.S. Settlement Shift

IHT

By ISABEL KERSHNER

Published: May 27, 2009

JERUSALEM — The Israeli government wants to reach understandings with the Obama administration that would allow some new construction in West Bank settlements, an Israeli official said Wednesday, despite vocal American and Palestinian opposition.

Binyamin Netanyahu’s delicate balancing act with Barack Obama

Times

James Hider

When Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, lands in Washington tomorrow he will have to attempt a delicate and complicated balancing act. His performance when he meets President Obama on Monday will have a profound effect on the Middle East for years to come.

Lieberman: «L’Italia può avere un ruolo nella pace in Medio Oriente»

Corriere della sera

ROMA - L’Italia è in grado di provuore i rapporti tra Israele e i Paesi arabi moderati. È l’augurio espresso dal neoministro degli Esteri israeliano, Avigdor Lieberman, dopo i colloqui con il collega Franco Frattini nel primo dei due giorni della sua contestata visita in Italia. «Credo che l’Italia possa avere un ruolo decisivo nei rapporti tra Israele e i Paesi arabi moderati e che possa promuovere tali rapporti», ha affermato Lieberman, al termine dei colloqui alla Farnesina.

DUE STATI – Sull’ipotesi di creare due Stati (Israele e Palestina), Lieberman ha risposto che il suo governo non farà «né slogan né dichiarazioni pompose, ma risultati concreti e riuscirà a portare «una pace con i palestinesi e con gli altri Paesi che ci stanno intorno». Per Frattini «la pace tra israeliani e palestinesi deve essere un obiettivo chiaro» del governo Netanyahu. E per arrivare alla pace si deve passare attraverso «obiettivi immediati e molto concreti, bisogna dare sviluppo, sicurezza e stabilità alla pace».

IRAN - Per Lieberman il «problema principale in Medio Oriente è l’Iran. Chi ha visto il coinvolgimento iraniano in ciò che avviene in Egitto e Libano può capire che il problema principale in Medio Oriente è l’Iran», ha detto il capo della diplomazia israeliana. Frattini, pur sottolineando che «la comunitá internazionale, l’Europa, gli Stati Uniti e i Paesi arabi moderati siano preoccupati per l’influenza iraniana», ha affermato che «la comprensione per le preoccupazioni di Israele» per le armi nucleari di Teheran «dev’essere totale».

VISITA PAPA – La visita del Papa in Terra Santa è un fatto di «grandissima importanza» e Israele sta facendo il «massimo sforzo perché abbia successo», ha aggiunto Lieberman, secondo il quale la visita di Benedetto XVI «ha una duplice importanza per quanto riguarda i rapporti tra Israele e i Paesi arabi moderati e per il dialogo tra cristianesimo ed ebraismo, un dialogo che possa essere da stimolo a un confronto tra islam ed ebraismo».

<!–
OAS_AD(‘Bottom1′);
// –>

CONTESTAZIONI - L’arrivo di Lieberman a Roma è stato preceduto e accompagnato da contestazioni. Lieberman stesso ha spiegato che non è un caso che per la sua prima visita all’estero sia stata scelta l’Italia. «Ho voluto esprimere l’apprezzamento del governo israeliano per l’atteggiamento positivo e amichevole dell’Italia», ha detto. Ma in diversi punti di Roma sono apparsi striscioni con le scritte «Lieberman go home. Palestina libera», a firma di diverse associazioni filo-palestinesi. Il movimento Militia Christi ha affisso sulla tangenziale di Roma uno striscione nel quale c’era scritto «Lieberman: razzismo sionista». Inoltre Comunisti italiani, Sinistra critica, Rifondazione comunista alle 18 faranno un sit-in di protesta.

Netanyahu ‘ready for peace talks’

BBC NEWS

12 April 2009

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has told Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas he intends to resume talks and co-operation to promote peace.

It was their first contact since Mr Netanyahu took office on 31 March.

Mr Abbas initiated the telephone call, which Mr Netanyahu’s office described as “friendly and warm”.

The new Israeli leader has not publicly endorsed the creation of a fully independent Palestinian state – a fundamental demand of the Palestinians.

An Israeli statement said that during his conversation with Mr Abbas, Mr Netanyahu “recalled their past co-operation and conversations, and how he intended to resume this in the future in order to advance peace”.

Mr Netanyahu leads a right-leaning coalition, which combines the centre-right, centre-left and far-right parties.

Avigdor Lieberman, who leads the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, is foreign minister and Labour veteran Ehud Barak defence minister.

Speaking before he was sworn into office, Mr Netanyahu said his government would strive to reach an agreement with the Palestinians and would work towards peace.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7995849.stm

Israeli, Palestinian Leaders Make First Phone Call

NEW YORK TIMES

12 April 2009

Filed at 8:24 a.m. ET

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s new prime minister spoke to the Palestinian president on Sunday for the first time since taking office, telling him that he seeks close cooperation to drive peace efforts forward.

Talk of cooperation alone, however, is unlikely to satisfy the Palestinian leadership, which wants Israel’s new government to make an unambiguous endorsement of the idea of an independent Palestinian state.

While repeatedly saying he wants peace with the Palestinians, Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to support the internationally backed idea of a Palestinian state alongside Israel since taking office as premier on March 31.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said there is no reason to negotiate if Netanyahu doesn’t support a ”two-state solution.”

What are you talking about?

yedioth aharonoth

3 April 2009

What are you talking about?

Lieberman needs to learn some basic facts before he speaks up
Eitan Haber

It is still unclear how long Avigdor Lieberman will remain in the post of foreign minister, yet it is already completely clear that he needs to get some “tutoring” so that he will become familiar with basic fact before he says more foolish things – because on Wednesday, at the reception in the Foreign Ministry, the honorable minister said some foolish things.

Mr. Lieberman showed contempt to the various Oslo Accords and claimed that Israel was popular in the world only after the Six-Day War victory and that “nothing was achieved by our concessions.”

Our system is ill

Yedioth Aharonoth

4 April 2009

Failure to appoint full-time health minister symptom of ailing political system
Emmanuel Rosen

If we need one clear, sharp and painful example of the serious malady maligning Israeli politics, we can look at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s blatant disregard for the need to appoint a full-time health minister.

We can talk for hours and write thousands of words about politicians who are detached from the people and their needs, about the cynicism, about broken promises, and about clinging to power – but we can simply tell the whole story in one sentence: In a state where the healthcare system is ill, and where if you have no money for private medicine you must rely on mercy from above, in such country the PM appoints 30 ministers and invents ministries that do not even exist for them, yet he does not see fit to appoint even one of them to the ministry that pertains to the lives of all of us.

Netanyahu’s 2nd chance

Yedioth Aharonoth

Obama may find new Israeli PM a willing partner for sustainable peace
Alon Ben-Meir
function setDbLinkCategory(url) {eval(unescape(url));}The new Israeli government led by Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu has raised many conflicting feelings among those concerned about the fate of the Arab-Israeli peace process. Will Netanyahu scuttle the little progress that was made under his predecessor Olmert, or will he engage the Palestinians anew?

Ed ora, al lavoro

Israele.net

Israele ha un nuovo governo, il più affollato della sua storia con 30 ministri e sette vice ministri: un fatto inquietante, arrogante ma del tutto prevedibile.

Giving serious ideas a bad name

Apr. 9, 2009 yossi alpher , THE JERUSALEM POST

Avigdor Lieberman, the new foreign minister, is perhaps most notorious for his policy demands regarding the Arab citizens of Israel. He wants Israeli Arabs to prove their loyalty to the state by taking oaths and performing national service, otherwise he would deny them citizenship. And he wants to move the Green Line – the pre-1967 border between Israel and the West Bank – so that Arab villages in the Triangle and Wadi Ara areas become part of Palestine and their residents become Palestinian instead of Israeli. At their core – if we could strip them of racist exaggeration – some of Lieberman’s ideas might be worth discussing. Indeed, at their core these policy proposals are not originally his.