Kadima, Yisrael Beiteinu formally sign coalition deal

<snip>

"Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Leiberman signed a coalition agreemment Monday evening, bringing the far-right Russian immigrant-based party into the government.

According to the agreement, which must still be approved by the Knesset, Lieberman will serve as vice premier, and he also will be a Minister of Strategic Threats in the Prime Minister's Office.

Lieberman will be a cabinet member and an integral part of all discussions regarding strategic decisions for Israel."

<snip>

"The Labor Party Central Committee will meet in the coming days in order to decide how to respond to the addition of Yisrael Beiteinu, but is expected to decide to remain in the government."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/777951.html

If Olmert is so unpopular, why not bring the coalition down and force new elections?

...extremely foolish concessions to the hard, hard right-wingers in Israel just to stay in power. It's kind of win-win for the Likudniks (and those to the right of them): they get many concessions, they can always blame Olmert (ultimately) for anything that gets worse and there's an almost certainty that Bibi will win the next election.

One idea, anyway.

PB

Netanhayu will win the next election? So they enable? Sounds a lot like "Democrat party" "tactics" of the past... which avail no one...

government in another country when discussing Israel, but Olmert is looking a bit too much like Hindenburg here.

Serious question.

PB

:rofl:

Now that was clever!

in situation, though. Israel today is far from Hindenburg's Germany, in ways too many to enumerate. A comparison with Italy might be better in some respects, but really it's a different case, just with the same sort of asshole.

of inviting this kind of racist and fascist into a government for a country that boasts of its democratic values . . . :puke:

Needs time to improve his "legacy" after the recent debacle. It seems like a desperate and foolish move to me, chasing the pot when he has a losing hand, and I would wager that he will soon regret it.

I just raised the issue of differences because I find this less alarming than the similar situation we were discussing, because of the differences, and that distinction seems important. No need to go off the deep end on this yet. Had what's-his-name executed his putsch in, say, Poland, it would have been much less important than it was next door in Germany.

...pretty disturbing things. But I can't quite tell what's real and what's not. Do you, by any chance, know where I could find a copy of the full text of the "Government Reform Bill" in English? If some of the things I've read about it are true, and I'm not sure they are, this could be really really bad for Democracy in Israel. Right-wing, left-wing, bad for everybody.

Much thanks. I was up till 2:00 AM this morning reading articles about him and it's not his inclusion into the Olmert government that worries me so much now as some of the implications of the "Government Reform Bill" which passage of seems to be the main condition for him joining Kadima.

PB

Senior members of Israel's Labour party have called for it to leave the government after the prime minister struck a deal to include a far-right party in his coalition.

Labour, with 19 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, is the main partner in Ehud Olmert's 67-member coalition. Its departure could bring down the government.

On Monday, Olmert's shaky six-month-old government was bolstered after he reached an agreement with Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of Yisrael Beitenu party, on joining the coalition.

The agreement is expected to be brought for a cabinet vote on Wednesday and to the full Knesset within a week.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4DDCA647-0225-4B77-9F47-8E61CD23742E.htm

IsraelNN.com) Arab members of the Labor party have threatened to leave the organization if Labor agrees to remain in the government coalition with Israel Is Our Home (Yisrael Beiteinu), headed by Knesset Member Avigdor Lieberman. Arabs make up a significant part of the Labor party but comprise only half a percent of the 2,600-member Central Committee, which will decide whether Labor will remain in the coalition.

MK Lieberman recently branded several Arab MKs as traitors for making remarks in favor of Hizbullah terrorists. "It's not a matter of love or hate. He wants a Jewish state without Arabs," said Labor MK Raleb Majadele, the party secretary for the Arab sector.

http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=114175

Meretz USA Alarmed over Avigdor Lieberman's

Impending Incorporation into the Israeli Government
October 24, 2006
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On October 24, 2006, Meretz USA President Lilly Rivlin made the following statement:

"Meretz USA expresses deep concern and alarm regarding the decision of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to incorporate MK Avigdor Lieberman and his Yisrael Beiteinu party into the government coalition. Because we support an Israel that pursues both peace and equal rights, Meretz USA regards Lieberman’s impending entry as a potentially catastrophic step backward on both counts.

"This summer’s wars in Lebanon and Gaza demonstrated (yet again) that there is no military solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict. But it also showed that the majority of the Arab League, including Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and even Syria, supports peace and normalization with Israel based on the 2002 Saudi plan. In recent weeks, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has begun demonstrating leadership, insisting that any Palestinian government recognize Israel. A small diplomatic opening exists, and Israel should be making every effort to utilize it.

"Avigdor Lieberman has consistently supported an aggressive militarism as an alternative to diplomacy. A ‘loose cannon’, he has publicly contemplated bombing Egypt’s Aswan Dam. Lieberman has implicitly endorsed the idea of ethnic cleansing, and his ‘diplomatic plan’ for Israeli-Palestinian territorial exchanges is a thinly disguised effort to revoke the citizenship of hundreds of thousands of Israel’s Arab citizens.

"Meretz USA applauds the leaders of Israel’s Meretz party for speaking out against Prime Minister Olmert’s decision, and expresses hope that the leaders of the Labor Party will take a similar stand against Yisrael Beiteinu and act vigorously to prevent that party’s incorporation into Israel’s government."


Useful Links
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web: http://www.meretzusa.org
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