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Israel relayed a sharply worded protest to the Russian government following Russia's vote in favor of adopting the Goldstone report at the Human Rights Council in Geneva Friday, according to senior Foreign Ministry officials in Jerusalem. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman suffered a personal blow by the Russian vote, which went against the promises he received from his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, days prior to the vote at the United Nations body. Russian officials clarified that Moscow would oppose any discussion of the Goldstone report by the UN Security Council, Israel Radio reported on Sunday night. Russia's envoy to Israel met...

The revelation of a second uranium enrichment facility in Iran proves that Iran is seeking to build a nuclear bomb, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was quoted as saying Saturday. Lieberman urged immediate action, saying, "Without wasting time, we must work towards the overthrow of the mad regime of Teheran." Lieberman's comments came a day after evidence of a second clandestine uranium enrichment facility was presented Friday by US President Barack Obama and the leaders of Britain and France at the G-20 economic summit in Pittsburgh. At a news conference in New York, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country had...

A delegation of 25 US congressmen began a six-day trip to Israel on Monday in the largest ever Republican mission to visit the Jewish state, the US embassy said. They held talks with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who told them Israel was willing to immediately resume direct talks with Syria, but ruled out returning the Golan Heights which were captured in 1967 and annexed in 1981. "Whatever the case, the Golan must remain under Israeli control in any agreement with Syria," Lieberman said in a statement. Syria insists that it be given back the strategic plateau. Turkey last year brokered...

J.E. Dyer makes an excellent point about Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s very real efforts to develop ties with countries outside the immediate American sphere. It should be pointed out that Israel enjoys deep and extensive relations with governments around the globe — from Latin America to Africa to southern Asia — mostly but not exclusively of a military nature. According to recent reports, Israel surpasses the U.K. as the fourth-largest military exporter in the world (after the U.S., Russia, and France).

The Israeli press was abuzz on Tuesday after a Monday night TV report stating that, in their meeting in Paris last week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy had told Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to “get rid of” Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Although the French leader’s faux pas stunned Israel, it wasn’t his first aimed at leaders of democracies. Sarkozy has unleashed a mass of insults towards Western leaders that are way outside normal diplomatic protocol, while at the same time showing high regard and cutting sweet deals with some of the Middle East’s cruelest dictators. In this latest contretemps,...

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman disregarded Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's provocative statements on how he would have constructed the Israeli government, were he prime minister, as an attempt by an illegitimate leader to gain ground by extreme declarations. "Abu Mazen [Abbas] isn't exactly legitimate, hence neither is his new demand, or suggestion, to replace Lieberman with Tzipi Livni. I see such advice as a blessing. His demand to cease settlement construction is nothing more than an expression of his distress and incompetence," he told Israel Radio on Monday, noting that the lower Abu Mazen's legitimacy drops, the harsher his demands...

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Thursday belittled the global focus on the growth of Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria, and said there would be no more unilateral concessions to the Palestinian Authority. "It is not a coincidence that since [the] Oslo [Accords] we have not reached the end of the conflict," Lieberman said, addressing a gathering of Druze supporters in the Arab city of Shfaram. The meeting was held at the home of Hamad Amar, a Knesset Member representing Lieberman's Israel Beiteinu party. In the last Knesset elections, the mixed Druze, Christian and Muslim Shfaram gave Israel Beiteinu 14.4%...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "get rid" of hard-line Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Channel Two reported on Monday. The Foreign Ministry responded to the report by lambasting the French leader for his "intolerable intervention in internal Israeli affairs." Sarkozy spent a good portion of his meeting with Netanyahu last Wednesday discussing the composition of the Israeli official, according to the report. The presence of three other Israeli officials at the meeting did not deter the French leader from expressing his true opinion of the foreign minister, said Channel Two. The French president reportedly told...

The relationship of “good friends agree to disagree” took a tough test Wednesday afternoon as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman standing at her side, told reporters, "We want to see a stop to the settlements.” The Foreign Minister, who lives in the community of Nokdim in the eastern part of Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem, did not flinch and retorted, “We think that as in any place, babies are born, people get married, some pass away and we cannot accept this vision about an absolutely complete freezing of settlements."

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday reiterated the Jewish state's refusal to freeze settlements, after his first talks with US counterpart Hillary Clinton exposed gaps on Middle East peace. Lieberman, standing next to Secretary of State Clinton after the pair had more than one hour of talks, told reporters that Israel did not have "any intention to change the demographic balance" of the West Bank. "This approach is very clear and also we had some understandings with the previous administration (of George W. Bush) and we try to keep this direction," he said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman will conduct a series of political talks in Washington with senior government officials, including discussions with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday. The talks come three days after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced that he would support a demilitarized Palestinian Authority state. Netanyahu’s speech was well-received by the American administration. Lieberman, who landed in the U.S. capital on Monday, will continue his political campaign that he started in Europe. In Luxemburg, he met with European Union ministers, who labeled Netanyahu's speech on Sunday as “insufficient.” The EU has said it is freezing plans...

You can parse that statement to read several different things but bottom line, I don't think that much has really changed. The statement by Avigdor Lieberman, Israeli Foreign Minister, is given some context by Haaretz: ------------------------------------------------------------- "Israel is not planning to bomb Iran," Lieberman told reporters in Moscow. The foreign minister is currently in Moscow for talks with Russian leaders. The new Israeli government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has placed the Iranian nuclear program at the top of his agenda. Netanyahu views the prospect of Iran attaining a nuclear military capability as an existential threat to Israel, thus...

Tel Aviv — A major American Jewish leader has slammed as discriminatory and undemocratic two bills from the party of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman that are stoking Arab-Jewish tensions. A panel of government ministers is scheduled on Sunday to vote on introducing a bill to institute a loyalty oath as a precondition for citizenship, a proposal that helped Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu party to an unprecedented third place finish in recent elections. The second bill is slated for a full cabinet vote and would outlaw public expressions of grief over the Palestinian displacement in 1948 — known as Nakba, or catastrophe...

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu) and his predecessor, Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni, looked at the American Roadmap Tuesday and found two different directions.

JERUSALEM — The new government of Israel is seeking to reorient the country’s foreign policy, arguing that to rely purely on the formulas of trading land for peace and promising a Palestinian state fails to grasp what it views as the deeper issues: Muslim rejection of a Jewish state and the rising hegemonic appetite of Iran. Advisers to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are drafting policy suggestions aimed at forming a framework that he plans to present to President Obama at their first summit meeting, in Washington on May 18. In addition, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman left Sunday for Europe on...

He's only been in the job for a month, but already the foreign minister is fed up with the 'slogans' he keeps hearing from his international counterparts: occupation, settlements, land-for-peace, two-state solutions... His favored key words? Security (for Israel). A stronger economy (for the Palestinians). And stability (for all). Bringing peace to our region is more complex than sloganeering would allow, he tells The Jerusalem Post in this interview, his first with an Israeli newspaper. And it's time we all faced up to the inconvenient reality. Last Thursday, just a few hours after The Jerusalem Post completed this interview with...

Lieberman is no racist By Yehuda Ben-Meir Last update - 11:01 26/04/2009 I did not vote for Avigdor Lieberman and never will. I do not agree with some of his political positions and do not accept his framing of certain issues. But I am appalled by the left's delegitimizing of Lieberman and anyone connected with him. I do not believe that Israel's Arab citizens must be required to declare their loyalty to the Jewish state. What must be demanded of them and of all Israeli citizens, whether Jewish, Druze or other, is unflinching loyalty to the State of Israel and...

Relations between Russia and Israel must and can rise to a level of strategic partnership, said Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of the Israel is Our Home party and a future member of Israel's new coalition government in an interview with Interfax. "I've been saying all along that relations between Israel and Russia must rise to a level of strategic partnership. This is even more relevant today, then previously," Lieberman said. The Israel is Our Home party won the third largest number of votes in the parliamentary elections and it is involved in the talks on the formation of Israel's new...

IF AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN'S first speech as Israel's new foreign minister did nothing else, it certainly vexed the media. The AP called it a "scathing critique of Mideast peace efforts" that had diplomats "cringing," while other reports said Lieberman had "dropped a political bombshell," "sparked an uproar," "repudiated a key accord," and "reinforced fears." The NY Times pronounced Lieberman's remarks "blunt and belligerent," describing the foreign minister as a "hawkish nationalist" ..."Israeli official hits peace efforts," "Lieberman dumps peace deal." But the headlines were wrong, as anyone can ascertain by reading Lieberman's short address. Far from disparaging peace, Israel's new foreign...

Even before Binyamin Netanyahu's new government was sworn in, skeptics and pundits alike warned that he would both isolate Israel internationally and refuse to engage in good faith negotiations with either the Palestinians or the country's other neighbors. The "real aim of Israel's recently elected government is against peace" and the composition of Netanyahu's cabinet is a "clear, unsurprising message to us," Syrian President Bashar Assad declared at an Arab League summit in Qatar. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addresses the Knesset, Tuesday evening. Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski Along the same lines, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told reporters that "the Palestinians...

In the Israeli political game, there are some things too important to play with. Has new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu safeguarded Israel’s security and foreign relations while meeting party and coalition needs, and what is the likely result of this new government’s policies internationally? Netanyahu had to put together a complex web of parties and personalities to get a Knesset majority. The result is a cabinet with more ministers than Jerusalem has rabbis. Yet equally impressive is that of the 30 ministers, almost half of them will deal with some element of national security or foreign policy. Is this a...

IF AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN'S first speech as Israel's new foreign minister did nothing else, it certainly vexed the media. The Associated Press called it a "scathing critique of Mideast peace efforts" that had diplomats "cringing," while other reports said Lieberman had "dropped a political bombshell," "sparked an uproar," "repudiated a key accord," and "reinforced fears." The New York Times pronounced Lieberman's remarks "blunt and belligerent," describing the foreign minister as a "hawkish nationalist" who is "not known for diplomacy" and heads an "ultranationalist" party that is "seen by many as racist." Headlines summed up Lieberman's debut as an attack on peacemaking:...

In the chanceries of Europe, the die has apparently been cast. The time has come to launch an all-out diplomatic war against Israel. That is, the time has come to begin to unravel EU acceptance of Israel's right to exist. Last Friday, in anticipation of the swearing in of the new Netanyahu government, EU foreign ministers met in Prague and discussed how they would stick it to the Jews. According to media reports, the assembled ministers and diplomats decided that they will freeze the process of upgrading EU relations with Israel until Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu explicitly commits his government...

Avigdor Lieberman became foreign minister of Israel yesterday. He celebrated his inauguration with a maiden speech that news reports indicate left his listeners grimacing, squirming, and aghast. The BBC, for example, informs us that his words prompted “his predecessor Tzipi Livni to interrupt and diplomats to shift uncomfortably.” Too bad for them – the speech leaves me elated. Here are some of the topics Lieberman covered in his 1,100-word stem-winder: The world order: The Westphalia order of states is dead, replaced by a modern system that includes states, semi-states, and irrational international players (e.g., Al-Qaeda, perhaps Iran). World priorities: These...

We will honor all the agreements and all the undertakings of previous governments and act exactly according to the Road Map. Good afternoon, honorable outgoing Foreign Minister, honorable outgoing Deputy Foreign Minister, incoming Deputy Foreign Minister, Director-General Ministry employees, honored guests, When my fellow students and I studied international relations, and learned what an international system is, we learned that there is a State and there are international organizations and all kinds of global economic corporations. Things have changed since then and, unfortunately, in the modern system, there are countries that are semi-states. It is hard to call a country...

Israel is not bound by the 2007 relaunch of US-backed peace talks with the Palestinians, new Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Wednesday, striking a hard line on his first day in office. Lieberman's rejection of the agreement signed in Annapolis, Maryland signalled a hawkish new approach to the peace process that could put Israel at odds with the international community and main ally the United States.

Israel's Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu has signed a coalition deal with the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party, officials say. Under the agreement, Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman would become foreign minister, said officials from Mr Netanyahu's Likud party. He is a strong supporter of the Israeli settler movement and opposes exchanging land for peace with the Palestinians. Likud still needs support from other parties to form majority in parliament. Yisrael Beiteinu would get five other cabinet posts, including internal security, infrastructure, tourism, and the integration of new immigrants. Mr Netanyahu has also been seeking the support of the centrist Kadima...

JERUSALEM - An Israeli politician who based his election campaign on baiting the country's Arab minority, drawing accusations that he is racist demagogue, now seems likely to become the Jewish state's top diplomat. U.S., European and moderate Arab officials have maintained public silence on the issue of Avigdor Lieberman's ascent, but privately acknowledge serious concern. An emerging coalition deal expected to be wrapped up in the coming days would anoint Lieberman foreign minister at a time when Israel's international image is suffering from its bloody war in Gaza and last month's election of a hawkish government likely to be at...

If Israel Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman becomes foreign minister, ties with Western Europe may suffer, diplomatic sources said Thursday, adding that Lieberman may place a greater emphasis in the Foreign Ministry on states of the former Soviet Union. The sources said that while Lieberman had been stigmatized in the West as a fascist, his image in Russia was far less problematic. Given his background - he was born in Moldavia - he was likely to place more prominence on ties with the Eastern European countries, especially if he was blackballed in the West because of his views. The sources said...

Israel Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman advocates the establishment of a Palestinian state, he wrote in an article published in the New York Jewish Week. Lieberman wrote on Wednesday that while he wants "the state of Israel to remain a Zionist, Jewish and democratic state," he supported the "creation of a viable Palestinian state." Lieberman said he was trying to shake off labels such as "far-right" and "ultra-nationalist" thrown in his direction. The party leader said he welcomed the "contribution of minorities to Israel's flourishing" and did not expect Israeli-Arabs "to share in the Zionist dream," but asked them to accept...

Israel's Latest Straw Man   By P. David HornikFrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, February 20, 2009 I didn’t rejoice when Avigdor Lieberman and his Yisrael Beiteinu Party did relatively well in Israel’s elections last week. Lieberman has been under police investigation for a decade; he may eventually be acquitted, or maybe not. In the election campaign he used a slogan—“Only Lieberman understands Arabic”—that smacks of bigotry. Late in 2006 he joined—and saved—the feckless Olmert government at a time of mounting public protest over the failed war in Lebanon. But having reservations about someone and demonizing him are two different things, and...

JERUSALEM — Israeli President Shimon Peres chose hard-line Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu to form a new Israeli government on Friday, ending days of speculation and giving Netanyahu six weeks to put together a ruling coalition. The question now is whether Netanyahu will form a narrow government with his hard-line allies or a broad government along with his centrist rival, Kadima Party leader Tzipi Livni. His choice will have serious ramifications for the Mideast peace process. Peres made his announcement early Friday afternoon after holding meetings with Netanyahu and Livni. An official ceremony appointing Netanyahu was to be held shortly afterward....

JERUSALEM - Far-right politician Avigdor Lieberman endorsed Benjamin Netanyahu for Israeli prime minister on Thursday, all but guaranteeing that Netanyahu will be the country's next leader. The divisive Lieberman emerged as the kingmaker of Israeli politics after the Feb. 10 election produced a deadlock between its two largest parties, and his backing of Netanyahu could be the basis for a hardline government. Such a government could freeze peace talks with the Palestinians, hurt Israel's standing in the world and place it on a possible collision course with President Barack Obama, who has said Mideast peacemaking will be a top priority...

[While] Arab Sector Turns to Pan-Arabism, Communists 02/12/09 by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz... ...An interesting phenomenon was registered among the Druze community living on the northern Golan Heights. In several cities, support for Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party, considered a right-wing faction, was between 38 percent and 50 percent. The other party that took more than 20 percent and up to 53 percent of the Druze vote in the Golan was the Hareidi-religious Shas party. Some political analysts see the vote as a protest against the ruling Kadima party, which lost the vast majority of its 2006 level of local support. Shas...

Fareed Zakaria (fareedzakaria) Interviewed a "Palestinian" rep. that has played that drama hype language on Israel, like "apartheid" (never mind the unfair treatment Jewish Israelis often run into as opposed to Israeli Arabs being favored in Israeli courts and police) & excusing Palestinian crimes (including genocidal Hamas that uses Arab civilians to kill Israeli civilians) with the usual "occupation" of course. He also lied openly (as Pallywood so well does) about Israelis effort on peace vis-a-vis self destructive Palestinian Muslims.   Play Podcast   -----------   To: fareedzakariagps@cnn.com   ---   The 'Palestinian' Criminal Drama Lying language   What's up with the...

Israel Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman refused to endorse either Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni or Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday night, saying rather his party would be open to hearing from all parties involved in the formation of the next coalition, but his party would never give up its core principles. Israel Beiteinu leader... "We truly hope that one of the dramatic changes that will be in the next government will be a change in the method of governing," Lieberman said following the exit polls which predicted Livni the winner of the election. "We will be open to hearing what...

The Haaretz poll showed Avigdor Lieberman's party surging to 18 seats, compared with Labor's 14. That sets Lieberman up as a kingmaker, holding the crucial swing votes that the winner will need to form a government. Lieberman clearly leans toward Netanyahu. A tough-talking immigrant from Moldova who succeeded in turning a party for immigrants from the former Soviet Union into one with broad national appeal, Lieberman has centered his platform on attacking Israel's Arab citizens, demanding that they sign an oath of loyalty or lose their right to vote or be elected. Perhaps his most polarizing policy is to redraw...

JERUSALEM — Last year, he suggested publicly that Egypt’s president “go to hell.” In the Israeli parliamentary elections, to be held Tuesday, he is running on a vow to require Arab citizens to sign a loyalty oath. As his campaign slogan asserts with a sly wink at Jewish voters, Avigdor Lieberman “knows how to speak Arabic.” Mr. Lieberman does not know Arabic and will not, by all polls and predictions, become the next prime minister. But his popularity has been climbing so steeply that his party is now expected to come in third, making him a likely power broker with...

"It's more of a crack-down on those who break the law," he continued. "Take those protesters, for example. I mean, you're allowed to protest, but there has to be a limit. If you get caught at a protest doing something violent or illegal, the law applies to you as well, and he's [Lieberman] simply saying that he's going to enforce it." ... But Lieberman articulated what some of his supporters couldn't on Sunday night, telling the crowd at the Haifa Theater that "the answer is clear. Without loyalty there can be no citizenship, and those who badmouth us only do...

When Israel votes in Tuesday's general election, a hard-Right politician who denounces the Arab minority as a 'fifth column' will probably become one of the country's most influential powerbrokers. All the polls suggest that Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, is on course to seize the balance of power between the centrist Kadima party and the Right-wing Likud party and win enough support to make or break a new coalition. Avigdor Lieberman is set for a surge in support The deep fears of ordinary Israelis explain his sudden popularity. Hana Amrin joined Mr Lieberman's growing army of...

An incitement campaign promoted by Arab leaders and MKs is what led to the terror attack at Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem on Thursday, MK Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu), said Friday. "Their incitement certainly contributed to the atmosphere that led an Israeli citizen who works in Israel to carry out an attack," he stated. Lieberman told Ynet that "unfortunately, we are submerged in a wave of terror. It doesn't matter whether it's a terrorist coming from Hebron to Dimona, an attempted lynching in east Jerusalem like several days ago, the Qassam fire on Sderot or Ashkelon or this serious attack...

At the end of the Second Lebanon War, Israel rumbled at the edge of a political volcano. Demobilized reservists marched to Jerusalem demanding that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resign in the wake of his incompetent handling of the war. Just as the reservists' protests were gathering momentum, in walked Avigdor Lieberman, the head of the rightist Israel Beiteinu party, and saved the government. Without so much as haggling over the price Olmert would pay for his surprising support, Lieberman joined the government in the ill-defined and powerless role of strategic affairs minister. Lieberman defended his move on patriotic grounds. The...

A key right-wing partner in Israel's coalition government announced his withdrawal over peace negotiations with the Palestinians. Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday he was taking his Yisrael Beiteinu faction out of the government in light of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's decision to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority on "core" peacemaking issues such as the future status of Jerusalem and West Bank land handovers. Yisrael Beiteinu argues that the Jewish state should annex West Bank settlement blocs while ceding Israeli Arab communities to the jurisdiction of a future Palestine. To do otherwise, Lieberman said, would be to encourage pro-Palestinian irredentism within Israel....

Published: 09/06/07, 11:19 AM Lieberman: 'Land for Peace' Will Lead to Certain Failure by Hillel Fendel (IsraelNN.com) Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman and his Yisrael Beiteinu party have taken the unique step of releasing a "party platform" in between national elections - in what some see as not only a promotional endeavor, but also a well-timed political ploy. Named the party's "vision," the paper begins by terming itself a "sincere and genuine effort to present Yisrael Beiteinu's outlook, without using worn out phrases or vague terminology that leave room for misunderstandings." The paper deals with issues such as the...

Israel's strategic affairs minister called for cutting power supplies to the Gaza Strip. Avigdor Lieberman said Thursday he was preparing a proposal for the Olmert government to declare Gaza, from which cross-border rocket salvoes have surged this month, an independent and hostile political entity. That, he said, would empower Israel to suspend electricity to the Palestinian Authority. "This absurd situation, in which the Rotenberg power station supplies electricity to the foundries in Gaza that manufacture Kassam rockets which are then fired at us, has got to stop," Lieberman told Army Radio. "Since we talked about disengagement and implemented disengagement, we...

(IsraelNN.com) Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman said Monday that Israel must warn American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that she is being deceived. Lieberman said that PA Arabs, including PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, have not fulfilled a single condition set by the Quartet. Lieberman also claimed that the new "unity government" in the PA is actually a Hamas government, which is using the Fatah organization to mask its true leaders. Lieberman called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is scheduled to meet with Rice and Abbas next Monday, to emphasize to Rice that she and the rest of the...

Minister of Strategic Threats Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday sent a letter to new United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asking him to revoke Iran's UN membership, Army Radio reported. Lieberman also called to pressure the UN Security Council to impose significant sanctions on Iran, according to the radio. "If the world allows Iran to achieve nuclear capability, Israel will be the first to pay the price," he wrote. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad scorned the Security Council's imposing sanctions on Iran, telling a crowd Tuesday that Iran had humiliated the United States in the past and would do so again.

Lieberman responds to 'NY Times' Israel Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman, having been the subject of an avalanche of critical editorials and news features in international newspapers since joining the government this week, has decided not to give interviews for a while. But he intends to respond positively to one interview request, from Al Jazeera's soon-to-launch international English network, provided it also runs on the network's Arabic channel. And Lieberman has responded in writing to one of the critical articles: He fired off a letter on Monday night - the same evening as he was sworn in to his new posts...

Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he disagrees with comments by his new Cabinet minister that Israel's Arab citizens should be separated from the Jewish majority. Mr. Olmert said Sunday he supports equal rights for Israel's Arab citizens. Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israeli Arabs should be separated from the Jewish majority using the model of Cyprus, an ethnically-divided island. In an interview with Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper, the ultranationalist politician described Israel's Arab minority as a "problem". He said the best way to keep Israel a Jewish state is to separate from the Arabs in the same...

The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, yesterday finally turned his back on the centrist agenda which brought him to power earlier this year by bringing into his coalition government one of the country's most outspoken rightwing politicians.The return to government of Avigdor Lieberman, who has called for Israel's borders to be redrawn to exclude its Arab citizens, signals a more hawkish policy. He will be made a deputy prime minister with responsibility for "strategic threats", particularly Iran. His sudden rise to power mirrors a shift to the right among the Israeli public in the wake of the Lebanon war.