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.”

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.

Israël : Lieberman à nouveau entendu pour des soupçons de délits financiers

le monde

Pour la troisième fois depuis sa prise de fonctions en tant que ministre des affaires étrangères israélien, il y a une semaine, Avigdor Lieberman a été interrogé, mardi 7 avril, par la police, qui le  soupçonne de corruption, blanchiment d’argent et abus de confiance. Le chef du parti d’extrême droite Israël Beiteinou a été entendu pendant cinq heures dans le cadre d’une enquête en cours depuis treize ans.

En seulement une semaine, M. Lieberman a donc été entendu plus de dix-sept heures par les policiers, qui l’avaient déjà interrogé ainsi que sa fille avant les élections du 10 février, qui lui ont permis d’entrer dans la coalition gouvernementale de Benyamin Nétanyahou. Le chef de la diplomatie s’est contenté d’estimer que la police faisait “du bon travail” et de souhaiter que les investigations prennent fin “le plus tôt possible”.

U.S. reiterates 2-state solution after Lieberman remarks

Haaretz

_{By Barak Ravid and Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondents and News Agencies}

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Tuesday that Western-backed
peace efforts with the Palestinians had reached a “dead end” and that Israel intended to present new ideas for diplomacy, prompting a response from the State Department re-emphasizing the American goal of establishing two states.

Guerra, economia e democrazia Bibi & Co. non faranno prigionieri

di Zvi Schuldiner
IL NUOVO GOVERNO

Benjamin Netanyahu, il disastroso primo ministro israeliano dal ‘96 al ‘99, tornato poi come ministro delle finanze tatcheriano nel 2003, ha presentato al parlamento israeliano il più ampio governo della sua storia: 30 ministri e 9 vice ministri. Molti credevano in un «nuovo Netanyahu» e ieri il nuovo primo ministro ha dimostrato che la sua maggiore preoccupazione risiede nel manipolare l’apparato politico.

Livni condemns new Israel leaders

BBC NEWS

02 April 2009

Israel’s former chief peace negotiator says the way the new government is talking shows it will not be a partner for peace with the Palestinians.

Tzipi Livni’s criticism follows the rejection by her successor as foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, of recent US-backed efforts towards a peace deal.

“What happened is that the government announced that Israel is not relevant, is not a partner,” she said.

New PM Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to seek peace but has not detailed how.

Ms Livni’s centrist Kadima party came narrowly ahead of Mr Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud in the February election, but he was asked to form a coalition as right-leaning parties predominated.

In his speech on Wednesday, at a foreign ministry handover attended by Ms Livni, the ultra-nationalist Mr Lieberman said Israel was not bound by the Annapolis accords agreed with the Palestinians and the Bush administration in November 2007.

He said the only legitimate document was another US-sponsored deal, the Road Map peace plan of 2003, because he said it was ratified by the Israeli government and the UN Security Council.

Israeli FM questioned over fraud

BBC NEWS

02 April 2009

Israel’s new Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has been questioned by police for at least seven hours over corruption allegations.

Police said Mr Lieberman was questioned under caution on suspicion of “bribery, money-laundering and breach of trust” as part of an ongoing investigation.

Mr Lieberman was sworn in as foreign minister on Tuesday.

He has previously denied any wrong-doing and says the corruption probe against him is politically motivated.

Police confirmed that the interview had been scheduled in advance with Mr Lieberman.

Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said Mr Lieberman had been questioned over the long-standing investigation into his business dealings, the Associated Press reported.

The accusations are believed to relate to a company run by Mr Lieberman’s daughter.

A spokesman for Mr Lieberman said it was “the same investigation that has been ongoing for the past 13 years and which he has petitioned the courts to have speeded up.

“He co-operated fully with police investigators and answered all their questions and enjoyed drinking their coffee,” said the unnamed spokesman.

Israeli Minister Questioned by Police

NEW YORK TIMES

02 April 2009

By ISABEL KERSHNER

JERUSALEM — Avigdor Lieberman, the new foreign minister of Israel, was questioned under caution by the national fraud squad for more than seven hours on Thursday, according to a police spokesman, as part of a long-standing investigation into suspicions of bribery, money laundering and breach of trust.

Also Thursday, a Palestinian wielding a pickax struck and killed an Israeli boy, 13, and wounded another, 7, in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank before fleeing, witnesses and the Israeli authorities said.

Israeli officials said that the father of the wounded 7-year-old, Ofer Gamliel, is serving a 15-year prison term for planting a bomb outside a Palestinian girls’ school in Jerusalem in 2002. But there was no evidence that the attack on the boy was retaliatory.

Mr. Lieberman caused an uproar on Wednesday, his first day as foreign minister, declaring in a blunt speech that Israel was not obligated to continue an American-backed peace effort with the Palestinians, started at a conference in Annapolis, Md., in late 2007.

The police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, said the interrogation did not come as a surprise, but was coordinated with the incoming minister several days in advance.

Mr. Lieberman is part of the new government led by Benjamin Netanyahu and his conservative Likud Party, which was sworn in late Tuesday. Mr. Lieberman leads the hawkish Yisrael Beiteinu party, an important partner in the governing coalition and the third largest party in Parliament.

Analysis: Israel’s unwieldy government

BBC NEWS

01 April 2009

By Paul Wood
Middle East correspondent

Some political analysts have been known to call Israel’s electoral system the worst-designed in the democratic world.

It took Benjamin Netanyahu a marathon seven weeks of negotiating to stitch together his governing coalition.

It was no surprise that he looked a little weary at the podium in the Knesset, or parliament, last night.

The last two weeks of that effort was concerned with bringing the Labour party into the government.

Mr Netanyahu knew that an administration perceived as narrowly right-wing would cause Israel problems internationally.

The result has been one of the biggest governments in Israel’s history. They even had to bring carpenters into the Knesset to enlarge the cabinet meeting table.

Not everyone is happy, including members of his own Likud party who have seen their own ministerial ambitions shunted aside.

Last-minute meetings were held through the early hours of the previous night so Mr Netanyahu could assuage his colleagues’ bruised feelings.

As he announced the long, long list of his new ministers to the Knesset, he was heckled by those who think the government is just too big.

Opposition MKs ironically called out, “seven, eight, nine… ” each time Mr Netanyahu added a new minister to the list.

“Oh, they know how to count,” he fired back.