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Little Tich

(6,171 posts)
Thu May 19, 2016, 02:31 AM May 2016

Critics blast ‘worrying’ Liberman defense appointment

Source: Times of Israel

Pundits and others see red over possibility outspoken politician will control military, while heaping praise on current chief Ya’alon

Politicians, pundits and others have reacted with uneasiness, disdain and bald-faced horror to the prospect of firebrand nationalist Avigdor Liberman being given the defense minister post, warning the move will be dangerous, while heaping praise on the ostensibly outgoing defense chief, Moshe Ya’alon.

Liberman has reportedly been offered and accepted the position — which would put him in control of Israel’s army as well as the military administration of the West Bank — as part of a deal to bring his Yisrael Beytenu party into the governing coalition.

The appointment is “irresponsible,” Likud MK Benny Begin told Army Radio Thursday morning, after earlier saying that appointing Liberman to the post would be a “delusional” move.

Praising Ya’alon as “excellent,” Begin warned that Liberman’s policies would not be “cautious and balanced, but irresponsible and ill-considered.”

Read more: http://www.timesofisrael.com/critics-blast-worrying-liberman-defense-appointment/

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Critics blast ‘worrying’ Liberman defense appointment (Original Post) Little Tich May 2016 OP
Netanyahu pulls off coalition surprise to upend Israeli politics bemildred May 2016 #1

bemildred

(90,061 posts)
1. Netanyahu pulls off coalition surprise to upend Israeli politics
Thu May 19, 2016, 09:08 AM
May 2016

"He's a magician, he's a magician," the partisan crowd chanted as a beaming Benjamin Netanyahu strode into his party headquarters a little over a year ago to declare a come-from-behind victory in Israel's election.

Now, with the expected entry into his right-wing government of ultranationalist Avigdor Lieberman as defense minister, it looks like Netanyahu, in his fourth term as premier, has pulled off another piece of political sleight of hand worthy of a "House of Cards" script.

In a matter of hours on Wednesday, Netanyahu crushed the opposition, shored up his support in his narrow, rightist coalition and put himself more firmly on course to become Israel's longest-serving leader.

But Netanyahu's surprise pact with Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu party, widely expected to be finalised by the weekend, and dashing talks with the center left was already raising Palestinian and international concern.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-netanyahu-politics-idUSKCN0YA1DA

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