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Two weeks ago, President Barack Obama opened a diplomatic war on Israel. The proximate cause of his offensive was the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Board's decision to approve the future construction of 1,600 housing units in northern Jerusalem. The goal of the assault is twofold. First, it seeks to undermine the legitimacy of Israel's control over Jerusalem in order to weaken Israel's standing among the American public. As Obama advisor Martin Indyk mocked, Obama's onslaught against Israel has made the Netanyahu government "supersensitive," about Jerusalem. Second, as Obama's advisors explained to The Atlantic, through his unprecedented attacks on Israel's...

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called Kadima head Tzipi Livni and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman Tuesday evening in an apparent effort to prevent the diplomatic crisis stemming from a British arrest warrant issued against Livni from spinning completely out of control. Israeli officials react to Livni's UK arrest warrant According to a statement put out by Livni's office, Miliband expressed his "shock" at the arrest warrant and promised to work immediately to ensure that a similar occurrence would not happen in the future against Livni or other Israeli leaders. Miliband told Lieberman that the warrant was "completely unacceptable."

Senior officials in Israel confirmed reports on Monday that a British court issued an arrest warrant against opposition chairwoman Tzipi Livni for her role in orchestrating Israel's military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip nearly a year ago. The request for the warrant was submitted by a pro-Palestinian organization. Livni served as foreign minister alongside Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak during the Israel Defense Forces offensive in Gaza. The three figures comprised the "troika" of top decision-makers who charted the course of the war. A Earlier Monday, Arab-language media reported that Livni canceled her participation...

Can Wine and Fruit Promote Truth? By Norma Zager “That's what it takes to be a hero, a little gem of innocence inside you that makes you want to believe that there still exists a right and wrong, that decency will somehow triumph in the end.” Lise Hand In today’s world it seems more difficult than ever to maintain a civil discourse. The meeting of minds is often no more civil than ten rounds at Madison Square Garden, with all the blood and sweat necessary to exert a knockout punch. The other evening, Soraya and Isaac Nazarian invited us to...

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...

Opposition leader Tzipi Livni on Monday questioned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In a highly anticipated foreign policy address at Bar-Ilan University last month, Netanyahu said he would be ready to agree to a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside Israel, a reversal of the premier's longstanding opposition to a two-state solution. In remarks to lawmakers at the Knesset, the former foreign minister accused the premier of paying lip service to the concept of a Palestinian state. In remarks to lawmakers at the Knesset, the former foreign minister accused the premier of paying lip...

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

Coalition talks in Israel seem to be headed in what most Israeli voters consider the wrong direction — that is, the negotiation of a right-wing Netanyahu government with no Kadima and no Labor. This is troubling to many Israelis, whose primary concern is accountable leadership. Political columnist Sima Kadmon explained in his plea to Livni last week:

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's political rivals Benjamin Netanyahu and Tzipi Livni agreed to hold further talks about a future government at their first meeting on Sunday since an inconclusive February 10 election. Netanyahu, head of the hawkish Likud party, whom President Shimon Peres asked on Friday to form a new ruling coalition, vowed to press on with efforts to persuade centrist leader Livni, Israel's foreign minister, to join him in a government. He called it "the challenge of the hour and the will of the Israeli people" for Israel's two largest political forces to rule jointly to confront what they...

The Jerusalem Post is reporting that the Obama administration is "worried" over the selection of "right-winger" Benjamin Netanyahu over the softer, gentler lady Zippy Livni. I am not certain, but she possibly obtained her nickname from her habit of wanting to zip away from Israel's enemies when they attack - as Barack seemed to favor, before he was in favor of the of the war which he opposed. Sorry, for the unclear jargon as the new Democrat administration tends to prevaricate every issue. "Bebe" Netanyahu miraculously won this election against Zippy, who actually won a majority of the Parliamentary...

Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of Israel's Right-wing Likud party, has won the endorsement of Israel's 'kingmaker' in a crucial step towards becoming prime minister. Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party, formally recommended that President Shimon Peres send for Mr Netanyahu and make him prime minister. Consequently, Israel may soon have a hardline, Right-wing government that may prove an exceptionally difficult partner for America's new administration. Mr Lieberman, who won the balance of power in the Knesset, or parliament, in the general election on Feb 10, had been careful to maximise his bargaining power. Having thrown his...

Israeli elections have produced strange results, while the intention of the majority of the Israeli electorate is rather obvious, the candidate with the most votes is not the one who will be able to form a stable coalition. In fact, though there was a sharp turn to the right, the election results show the electorate being fed up by the shenanigans of both Tzippi Livni and her left wing allies, as well as Bibi Netanyahu’s heavy-handed changing of the rules after the internal party’s elections in order to kick Moshe Feiglin down to an unrealistic position, just because Bibi was...

JERUSALEM – Tzipi Livni, who hopes to be appointed Israel's prime minister-designate, said Monday Israel must give up considerable territory in exchange for peace with the Palestinians, drawing a clear distinction with her rival, Benjamin Netanyahu. She told a convention of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Organizations, "we need to give up half of the Land of Israel," using a term that refers to biblical borders that include today's Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. She explained that such a withdrawal would be for the good of Israel, to maintain it as a Jewish state. Livni told the...

<p>ERUSALEM, Israel (AP) -- Tzipi Livni, who hopes to be appointed Israel's prime minister-designate, said Monday Israel must give up considerable territory in exchange for peace with the Palestinians, drawing a clear distinction with her rival, Benjamin Netanyahu.</p> <p>She told a convention of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Organizations, "we need to give up half of the Land of Israel," using a term that refers to biblical borders that include today's Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.</p>

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is refusing to join in a coalition government with Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu. This increases the possibility the the right wing Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu will form the next government in coalition with other smaller right wing parties. Don't expect any negotiations with Hamas anytime soon.

Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu and Kadima head Tzipi Livni will hold talks aimed at forming a national-unity government after President Shimon Peres, as expected, appoints Netanyahu to put together a coalition, senior officials close to the two party leaders said on Saturday night. The head of the Central Elections Committee, Supreme Court Justice Eliezer Rivlin, will visit Beit Hanassi at 6 p.m. Wednesday to officially inform Peres that the results of the election had been published in the government registry. Peres has invited the Kadima and Likud factions to his residence that night and the other factions the following day...

Israel Turns Right—With a Hitch   By P. David HornikFrontPageMagazine.com | Thursday, February 12, 2009 Center-Left voters showed more prudence in the Israeli elections Tuesday than Center-Right voters. Enough of the former switched from Ehud Barak’s Center-Left Labor Party and the smaller left-wing Meretz to enable Tzipi Livni’s centrist Kadima to beat—possibly—Bibi Netanyahu’s Center-Right Likud by 28 Knesset seats to 27 (out of 120). The still-uncounted soldiers’ and other votes could yet push Likud into a tie or even, just possibly, a lead over Kadima. But the Center-Left voters’ prudence came at the price of very poor showings by...

JERUSALEM – Inconclusive election results sent Israel into political limbo Wednesday with both Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and hard-line leader Benjamin Netanyahu claiming victory and leaving the kingmaker role to a rising political hawk with an anti-Arab platform. Livni's Kadima Party won 28 seats, just one more than Netanyahu's Likud, in Tuesday's election for the 120-member parliament, according to nearly complete results. Both held victory rallies, but without a clear majority neither can govern alone. Hard-line parties won a majority of the votes, meaning that Netanyahu has more natural allies and a better chance of forming a coalition. The results...

JERUSALEM (AP) - Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and hard-line rival Benjamin Netanyahu both claimed victory Tuesday in Israel's parliamentary election but official results suggested the race was too close to call. Right-wing parties - including Netanyahu's Likud Party - appear to have won a clear majority of 64 seats in the 120-seat parliament, which would give Netanyahu the upper hand in forming the next government. However, with more than two-thirds of the votes counted, Livni's centrist Kadima Party had 29 seats, while Likud had 28. Those results could change by a seat or two when soldiers' votes are tallied Thursday...

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...