A deal has been reached to bring far-right former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman and his Yisrael Beitenu party into Israel’s governing coalition pushing it further to the right, negotiators said Wednesday.
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France’s prime minister said Tuesday that peace between Israelis and the Palestinians is also important for security in Europe. Israel has been “infected by the seeds of fascism, which should be “a red light for all of us regarding what’s going on in the government”.
Blair added that active involvement by Arab states in the peace process is a key to its success given the deeply rooted distrust between the Israeli and Palestinian leadership and the hard political circumstances in which the two sides are working.
A watered-down version is thought to have been agreed upon that analysts say is unlikely to significantly change current policy. At times, he angered the U.S.by criticizing American peace initiatives in the region as naive or messianic.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expanded his coalition government, but the appointment of a hardliner to a senior Cabinet post is drawing criticism, both at home and overseas.
The move to install Lieberman was controversial because he has a reputation for taking a hawkish stance toward Palestinians, according to the BBC.
Knesset member Benny Begin, son of former Prime Minister Menachem Begin, called it “delusional” and said it showed “a lack of responsibility toward the defense establishment and all the citizens of Israel”.
Mr Lieberman, who lives in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, has repeatedly voiced scepticism about pursuing peace with the Palestinians.
Global reaction has also been critical, with a New York Times editorial describing Lieberman’s appointment as a “risky and cynical” move and saying it is now “entirely possible to imagine Israel’s relations in the region and beyond moving backward”.
Netanyahu announced his decision to bring Lieberman on board after months of talks with the Labour-led Zionist Unity leader Isaac Herzog.
In a recent example of his provocative style he suggested Ismail Haniya, Hamas’s leader in the Gaza Strip, be given 48 hours to hand over two detained Israeli civilians and the bodies of soldiers killed in a 2014 war “or you’re dead”. Friedman quotes Yaalon, saying that extremism and “dangerous forces” are taking over Israel.
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“Why is Netanyahu choosing to (appoint) a man who… can not be trusted to support him in public, will alienate a not-insignificant proportion of worldwide supporters of Israel, will exacerbate tensions in parts of the Arab world, and who will render at least some Israeli parents considerably more wary when the day comes for their children to be enlisted”, wrote David Horovitz on the Times of Israel website.
