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(IsraelNN.com) Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) told Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) this morning that if the prime minister in his capacity as party leader invokes party discipline in the upcoming referendum on the unilateral Gaza disengagement plan, he will resign. “I will not cast a vote against the Land of Israel”, the veteran Likud MK stated. Rivlin came under fire from colleagues who support the prime minister’s plan after his Memorial Day and Independence Day remarks were directed at Sharon and his plan, using harsh words in his description of someone who would knowingly act to uproot Jewish communities in...

My brother and sisters of Israel, "If you will it - it is no legend." With these words, Theodor Herzl concluded his novel "Altneuland" about the imaginary, Utopian Jewish State, And with these simple words, Herzl turned his modest novel into a vision; and his image was carved forever on the heart of the nation as a visionary. - The visionary of the Jewish State. Little by little, this vision grew. First of all, with the modest, very existential, aspiration for any piece of land. A safe haven. A refuge from anti-Semitism - and this might even be Uganda. And...

Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin, a close political ally of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, warned Monday that the peace process moves now under way in Washington are liable to make Israel's positions "almost totally irrelevant." Rivlin said in an interview with Army Radio that the United States's failure to accept Israel's 14 reservations to the road map peace plan would in effect result in the plan being not much different than the Saudi initiative, which calls for an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders. He termed as "dubious" the US's "excuse given not to accept the reservations." In particular, Rivlin harshly...

w w w . h a a r e t z d a i l y . c o m Last update - 14:05 28/07/2003 Rivlin: PM foresees Palestine on more than 42% of West Bank By Haaretz Service Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, until recently a close political confidante of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said Monday that the future Palestinian state foreseen by Sharon will have borders larger than the 42 percent of the West Bank currently under nominal Palestinian Authority control. Rivlin, a Likud stalwart and onetime principal defender of Sharon, Monday slammed the prime minister's policies, saying that his...

Happy Independence Day, my brothers and sisters of Israel: Our flag has just been raised to full mast, and once again it is flying proudly over our Holy City, on the mount of memorial and heroism, as though it were natural and self-evident, as though it were always so. But the Yizkor [memorial] prayer, and the sad trumpet fanfare still echoing in our ears and the distress of Memorial day, still in our hearts—these remind us, today, as they do each year, how far all this is from self-evident. At this time, during this ongoing war against terrorism, we are...

The position is usually reserved for a politician who has extensive parliamentary experience and is in the older age range among MKs. Rivlin, at 63, was elected to the Knesset in 1988. Rivlin has reached a senior level in government, serving as communications minister in Sharon's government. Rivlin decided to try first for the speaker's post, while he was assured of being reappointed to the cabinet. Rivlin's Likud career has been rocky, and he did not succeed in being reelected to the Knesset in 1992 and rejoined in 1996 at the bottom of the list following a resignation. In the...