Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu signed the deal which brings five members of Lieberman’s six seat faction into the government, increasing Netanyahu’s majority to a comfortable 66 out of 120 Knesset members. “This raises legitimate questions about the direction it may be headed in. and what kind of policies it may adopt”. He is a member of Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party and hawkish in his own opinions. But a lot of it is also driven by Israel’s desire to destroy itself – thanks to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s steady elimination of any possibility that Israel will separate itself from the Palestinians in the West Bank. Known for his inflammatory statements, he is one of the country’s most controversial and polarising politicians. And his posture toward Israel’s Arab neighbors is not all threat.
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“Provided the Israeli government is ready to commit to a discussion around the Arab peace initiative … it would be possible to have some steps of normalization along the way to give confidence to this process”, Blair said, according to Haaretz. Later in the fall, the worldwide peace conference is expected to take place, which aims at restarting the peace talks between Israel and the Palestine.
Published on Tuesday, the State Comptroller Joseph Shapira’s report noted that many of Netanyahu’s trips – including several with his family – were funded by foreign governments, public bodies and businessmen.
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”. “This is a major transformation in Israel and should be looked upon with great concern”.
Israeli settlements and industry continue to expand in the West Bank, land Palestinians claim as part of a future state.
“President Abbas met with Netanyahu three times before: in Washington, Sharm al-Sheikh in Egypt and in Jerusalem”. While some of his policy ideas are popular among the right, they give many in the current US administration and in the American Jewish community pause, such as a call to transfer some of Israel’s Arab population to citizenship of a future Palestinian state.
Mr. Netanyahu on Wednesday called on Mr. Herzog to join his coalition in a unity government of political parties, a move the Zionist Union leader has rejected since the prime minister began talks with Mr. Lieberman.
“Lieberman is a proven loyal and committed leader in Israel who will do his best to strengthen Israel in his new role”, Lamm said.
“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 global 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. “We will not grow soft or deviate towards personal interests for the sake of dubious goals such as establishing a state or an emirate in Gaza, or establishing a state with temporary borders in the West Bank”.
Israel’s deputy chief of staff, Yair Golan, warned in a speech earlier this month that he saw trends in Israel similar to those in pre-Nazi Germany.
But Lieberman’s biggest troubles could come at home with the army.
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In March, military leaders criticized a soldier who was caught on video fatally shooting an already-wounded Palestinian attacker in the head – and he is now on trial for manslaughter. “There is a matter of image in the world, which is, I think, not very positive to say the least”, he said.
