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A three-judge panel unanimously acquitted former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman of the charges against him Wednesday morning. The verdict means he can return to serve as foreign minister, but the state is expected to appeal it. “Seventeen years are over; it’s behind me,” Lieberman told reporters after the verdict. “I want to thank my family and friends who truly stood by me in all of those 17 years and gave me the support. I want to thank the defense team that did an amazing job; extraordinary.” “I do not intend to deal with this issue anymore,” he added. “This chapter...

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu expressed satisfaction on Friday with Israel’s apology for the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident. Davutoglu, who just recently hinted there was a “secret deal” between Israel and Syria, said that all of Turkey's fundamental demands had been met with the apology. Earlier, Netanyahu spoke on the phone with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and apologized for the deaths of nine Turks during Israel’s 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla. Channel 10 News reported on Friday the details of the agreement between Israel and Turkey. Netanyahu, in addition to the apology, has agreed to compensate the...

A powerful partner of Israel’s prime minister has called peace with the Palestinians “impossible,” saying the conflict between them and Israel can only be “managed.” Saturday’s comments from former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman follow a White House announcement of an upcoming visit to Israel by President Barack Obama, expected to focus on a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. …

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman Thursday launched a fierce attack against journalists in general, and Channel 10 and Yediot Aharonot in particular, according to a report in media news website Ice. Speaking at a conference in Tel Aviv, Lieberman said that some journalists in Israel serve an agenda, and are "liars without limits." Channel 10, said Lieberman, is trying to influence the outcome of the investigation against him. "Channel 10 blackmails and places unreasonable pressure on all of the decision makers in my case," he explained. "Anyone who tries to be objective is simply threatened by them." He also singled out...

Born in Moldova, Mr. Lieberman enjoys wide support among Israel's one million immigrants from the former Soviet Union. He lives in a West Bank settlement considered illegal under international law, and he is perhaps the government's harshest critic of President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, having called for his ouster and denounced as "diplomatic terrorism" his recent bid for upgraded Palestinian status at the United Nations. Polls have consistently shown that Mr. Lieberman's joint ticket with Mr. Netanyahu, known here as Likud Beiteinu, is expected to receive up to 40 of the 120 seats in Israel's next Parliament, by...

(Reuters) - Lawyers for Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman faced a hearing on Tuesday where they argued against his being indicted on graft charges that would force his resignation and could trigger early Israeli elections. Justice officials announced last April that Lieberman, an outspoken rightwinger who heads the ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is Our Home) coalition party, faced possible charges of fraud, money laundering and witness tampering. Prosecutors suspect Lieberman of using shell companies and third-party accounts to receive more than $1.2 million illicitly while in public office, including from foreign businessmen with interests in Israel.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, head of the Yisrael Beitenu faction, said Monday that the attacks against Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria (Yehuda and Shomron, or Yesha) are wrong and hypocritical. "There is no justification, and no excuse can be accepted with regard to hurting IDF soldiers," he said, in reference to the incident a week ago in which Yesha youths allegedly vandalized an IDF base. "Between that and shooting protesters – and it doesn't matter if they are Jewish or not – there is a great difference." "In the media frenzy regarding the outposts, too, the media is not...

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman met with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, and said that he believes the recent elections in Russia were fair and democratic, the Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported. According to the report, Lieberman said that he shares the view of the Israeli observers who oversaw the election in Russia, who said they were fair and democratic. The elections, which were recently described by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as neither free nor fair, resulted with Putin's United Russia party winning less than 50 percent of Sunday's vote – a steep fall from...

A new poll whose results were released on Monday has found that most youth in Israel tend to identify with the right side of the political map. According to the results reported on Channel 10 News, 17% of high school students believe that Israel’s next Prime Minister should be outspoken rightist Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu). Lieberman is followed by well-known leftist journalist and television personality, Yair Lapid (who has not officially announced he is running for politics but who has openly expressed his desire to rebuild his late father’s, Tommy Lapid’s militantly secular and anti-hareidi Shinui party), who got 13%....

While the government has thus far refused to apologize to Turkey over a clash aboard a Gaza-bound boat in 2010, senior cabinet ministers are divided on the matter. Foremost among them are Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak; the former staunchly opposes an apology, while the latter supports it. “This is not a legal matter, but rather a political issue, and is not a question of defending IDF soldiers but of neglecting them, of irresponsibility on the diplomatic level,” Lieberman said Thursday. “If there is an apology, that means admitting defeat on the battlefield and the political...

Israel is monitoring two Iranian warships about to pass through the Suez Canal for Syria and warn they might act. Israeli's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says that "Israel cannot ignore these provocations," according to ynetnews.com. "Unfortunately, the international community is not ready to deal with Iran's repeated provocations," Lieberman said, according to the Jerusalem Post. Lieberman added that the warships was "a provocation that proves Iran's nerve and self-esteem is growing from day to day." Iran announced plans to deploy warships near Israel and dock at a Syrian port for a year, IsraelNationalNews.com reports. A senior Israeli official tells the...

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman slammed the world's response to North Korea firing on their southern neighbor on Tuesday, asking how the world will be able to stop Iran if they can't stop North Korea. North Korea fired hundreds of artillery shells at a South Korean island on Tuesday, in one of the heaviest bombardments on the South since the Korean War ended in 1953. South Korea responded by firing 80 rounds of shells back at the North.

North Korean spokesmen reacted furiously last week to claims by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman that Pyongyang is supplying weapons technology to Iran and Syria. Representatives of the regime of Kim Jong-Il described Lieberman as an “imbecile.” The official Korean Central News Agency in a memorable phrase accused the foreign minister in an official statement of “faking up sheer lies.” The indignant denials notwithstanding, recent studies indicate that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as North Korea is officially known, is indeed playing a crucial but little remarked upon role in facilitating the arming of the Iran-led regional axis, including in...

The Foreign Ministry issued an uncharacteristically sharp response on Wednesday to a Russian and Turkish call to include Hamas in the diplomatic process, drawing parallels between Hamas and Chechen terrorists and saying it was wrong to distinguish between “good” and “bad” terrorists. The statement, released at the directive of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who is currently in Tokyo, said Hamas was a terrorist organization that set as its goal the destruction of Israel. “Hamas people are responsible for the murder of hundreds of innocent civilians, including those who came from the former Soviet Union, and also Russian citizens,” the statement...

(IsraelNN.com) Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, head of the Israel Our Home party, says, "It's time to forget our obsession of "territory in exchange for peace; all future agreements must be based on 'peace in exchange for peace.'" Speaking at a party faction meeting on Monday, Lieberman said, "Peace is in fact our heart's desire, but it is not more important than Israel's existence as the state of the Jewish people or than lasting security for its citizens. We extend our hand in peace to enemies, but as long as they choose the path of war, we must be firm, return...

Oguz Celikkol, Turkey's ambassador to Israel, reportedly told Arab MK Taleb a-Sanaa (UAL) Tuesday evening he will be traveling to Ankara for consultations in reaction to what the Turks termed the shameful treatment he was given by Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon during a meeting the two held on Monday evening, and that he may not return to Israel. Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon. Photo: AP [file] SLIDESHOW: Israel & Region | World The Jerusalem Post could not confirm the report. Earlier Tuesday, the Turkish Embassy in Tel Aviv issued a warning saying that "if Israel did not issue a...

At a meeting Tuesday with Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned that the worldwide jihad had set its sites on the area of the Balkans as its next target. Quoting Israeli intelligence sources, Lieberman said that Islamic fundamentalists were planning to take advantage of the tension between Muslim and Christian populations in the region. Fundamentalists were being funded by Iran and radical elements in Saudi Arabia, and had recruited Bosnians and Albanians for terror training camps. The new terrorists would be sent home to stir up trouble, in the hopes that an Islamic revolution could be...

And of course, stories that Joe Klein makes up get recycled in Palestinian propaganda. Ben Smith reports: U.S. and Israeli officials are dismissing an eyebrow-raising claim from a prominent Palestinian activist and official, Mustafa Barghouti, in today's International Herald Tribune. "The Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, stands up and walks out on the U.S. envoy, George Mitchell, every time the American envoy mentions East Jerusalem," Barghouti wrote in an op-ed deploring "U.S. and European inaction" in the face of Israeli intransigence. Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren, through a spokesman, dismissed the claim as "nonsense." "I have never heard such a thing,"...

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...