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Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said he believes his 94-seat super-coalition is a historic opportunity – and mandate – for peace. "On the peace process," Netanyahu told attendees at an Institute for National Security Studies conference in Tel Aviv. "We are 94 Members of Knesset. This is an opportunity to advance the peace process, an opportunity which may not repeat itself, in my opinion, in the next ten years." "Waiting and inaction lead to the mere illusion of quiet. We're on borrowed time," Netanyahu warned. "We will get stuck in a corner, or we'll arrive at a wall, and...

On Wednesday afternoon in Baghdad, a few thousand kilometers away from the Prime Minister’s Jerusalem Residence, the world powers known as the P5+1 – the US, China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany – sat down for much anticipated talks with the Iranians about their nuclear program. At the same time, just a few hundred meters away from the Prime Minister’s Residence, 100 or so people loudly demonstrated for the rights of Ethiopian immigrants and against discrimination. And all the while, for two hours on a mild afternoon, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – with a small black kippa on his head...

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined forces last week with the centrist Kadima party to form one of Israel's largest-ever coalition governments, it appeared to give him maneuvering room to pursue Palestinian peace talks over the objections of his hardline political base. But twin efforts by coalition lawmakers last weekend to strengthen the legal status of Jewish settlements suggest that the political fulcrum of Mr. Netanyahu's government in fact may not have shifted all that dramatically away from stalwarts in his Likud party who oppose ceding land to the Palestinians on both ideological and theological grounds. "The prime minister doesn't...

NEW YORK — While incumbents around the world are struggling to hold on, one is thriving. By bringing the rival Kadima party into his ruling coalition, Benjamin Netanyahu has become "king of Israel," in Aaron David Miller's phrase. He has an unusual, perhaps unique, opportunity to use his new power to secure Israel's future. Netanyahu's coalition now commands one of the largest parliamentary majorities in Israeli history. He faces no plausible rival as prime minister. When pushed on the Palestinian issue, Netanyahu has often cited the constraints of his coalition to explain why he had not taken bolder steps toward...

In May 1967, in brazen violation of truce agreements, Egypt marched 120,000 troops to the Israeli border, blockaded the Straits, abruptly signed a military pact with Jordan and Syria. Pledged to destroy Israel. On June 5, Israel launched a preemptive strike. The Six-Day War. Less remembered. The nationalist opposition was brought into the government. Emergency unity coalition. Forty-five years later, May 7, Netanyahu has done the same thing.

War is coming to the Middle East soon! A casual observer would reply “What’s new?” In a way he would be correct. War is the rule not the exception in that part of the world. However, this is a completely different war, and we need to be ready for it. On the night of May 7-8, 2012, Prime Minister Netanyahu forged a national unity government when he managed to bring Kadima, the main opposition party, into his ruling coalition. This was completely unexpected because hours before the Knesset had been discussing a bill calling for early elections that Netanyahu was...

he United States is worried that Shaul Mofaz and his Kadima party’s joining a unity government with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu could result in an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities at any given moment, according to a report on Channel 10 News on Thursday. U.S. government officials told Channel 10 News that they believe a Likud-Kadima joing government could make a decision about an Israeli attack on Iran at any moment and perhaps even before the U.S. presidential elections in November.

In May 1967, in brazen violation of previous truce agreements, Egypt ordered U.N. peacekeepers out of the Sinai, marched 120,000 troops to the Israeli border, blockaded the Straits of Tiran (Israel’s southern outlet to the world’s oceans), abruptly signed a military pact with Jordan and, together with Syria, pledged war for the final destruction of Israel. May ’67 was Israel’s most fearful, desperate month. The country was surrounded and alone. Previous great-power guarantees proved worthless. A plan to test the blockade with a Western flotilla failed for lack of participants. Time was running out. Forced into mass mobilization in order...

The United States is worried that Shaul Mofaz and his Kadima party’s joining a unity government with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu could result in an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities at any given moment, according to a report on Channel 10 News on Thursday. U.S. government officials told Channel 10 News that they believe a Likud-Kadima joing government could make a decision about an Israeli attack on Iran at any moment and perhaps even before the U.S. presidential elections in November. .....

Thirteen years after he was sent packing by Bill Clinton's political consultants and a phony third party, Bibi Netanyahu has become a political survivor. The awkward politician constantly under siege by the media and at the mercy of domestic political squabbling, has become a veteran of Israel's turbulent politics. Netanyahu owes most of his success to a dysfunctional political climate. in which there is no one left to replace him. The old generation of leaders is gone and even a notoriously fickle Israeli electorate would not trust most of his rivals to make them dinner, let alone run a country....

More than 30 years ago, I anointed a young man named Benjamin Netanyahu and prophesied that he would be the Prime Minister of Israel. At the time, he was not involved in politics, and I went to Prime Minister Menachem Begin and recommended Netanyahu for his first appointment. Today my old friend is indeed the Prime Minister, and he has just accomplished something never before seen in Israel’s history. Israel’s government is a parliamentary system (like England’s) with many political parties. The Prime Minister has just created the strongest coalition government Israel has ever known by bringing the largest opposition...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has struck a deal with the opposition Kadima party, avoiding the early general election he had sought. Kadima's recently-elected leader, Shaul Mofaz, is set to be named deputy PM. Mr Netanyahu said their new coalition wanted a "responsible" peace process with the Palestinians and "serious" talks about Iran's nuclear programme. The move came as parliament debated its dissolution before an election Mr Netanyahu had planned for September. Kadima is currently the biggest party in the Knesset, but recent polls have suggested the number of seats it holds could be halved. The coalition will have a...

Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formed a unity government on Tuesday in a surprise move that could give him a freer hand to attack Iran's nuclear facilities and seek peace with the Palestinians. The coalition deal, negotiated secretly over the past days and sealed at a private meeting overnight, means the centrist Kadima party will hook up with Netanyahu's rightist coalition, creating a majority of 94 of parliament's 120 legislators. The coalition, which replaces plans announced just two days earlier for a snap election in September, will be one of the biggest in Israeli history. "This government is...

In early March, the Israeli newspaper Maariv reported Barack Obama had offered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government the latest in “bunker busting bombs” along with advanced refueling planes in exchange for the PM’s promise to delay any attack against Iranian nuclear facilities until 2013. It was a clear attempt by Obama to bribe the nation of Israel into refraining from war until AFTER the November election. (1) Naturally, Regime spokesmen denied a story so uncomfortable for Obama, especially in light of his already dwindling support among even the most dependably liberal of voting groups—American Jews. And the New York...

Bibi's surprise move today solidifies  political ground for pending attack on Iran... Benjamin Netanyahu is congratulated by former Israeli President Zalman Shazar during a ceremony honoring the elite commandos who rescued the hostages from the Sabena Flight 571. On May 8th 1972 -forty years ago today- the Israeli government faced a volatile hostage situation at Lod Airport (now Ben Gurion) outside Tel Aviv.  Belgian-flagged Sabena flight 571 had departed smoothly from Vienna, yet twenty minutes after takeoff two male and two female Black September terrorists (of '72 Munich Olympics massacre fame) had hijacked the plane. Fortunately their attempts to penetrate the pilot's...

The largest opposition party in Israel, Kadima, just joined Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu's coalition, obviating the need for elections in September, and turning Bibi into something akin to what only Iran has previously had: a Supreme Leader. (Granted, one supreme leader came to power democratically, and the other did not.) Bibi now stands to be the strongest prime minister of Israel in recent history. The newly-elected leader of Kadima, Shaul Mofaz, recently said he would never in a million years join a coalition with Netanyahu, so this was inevitable, I guess. Speculation is rampant about why Bibi brought in Mofaz....

For the last twenty years Israel has been swept into an obsession with few parallels except to the Dutch Tulip economy. Except instead of tulips, its commodity of choice is an even more insubstantial thing, the faint promise of peace. Peace fever is the disease consuming Israel as surely as the Black Death took Europe. If the Dutch traded fortunes for flowers, the Israelis have traded away most of their territory for worthless pieces of paper that last about as long as tulips do. Mostly, like Madoff's investments, after they wither and die it turns out that they were never...

In a surprise turnabout, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to cancel the early elections he had called just 24 hours before and instead form a unity government with the opposition party Kadima, Israeli officials said Tuesday. The decision shocked much of Israel's political establishment, which was gearing up to dissolve the parliament, or Knesset, and launch campaigns for a Sept. 4 vote. By joining the government coalition, newly elected Kadima Chairman Shaul Mofaz avoids facing voters amid polls indicating that his centrist party would lose more than half its Knesset seats. Just a month ago, Mofaz declared he...

In a stunning reversal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called off early elections Tuesday after reaching an agreement to bring Israel's main opposition party into the government, a move that puts a more moderate face on his hawkish coalition.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition chairman MK Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) reached a surprise agreement early Tuesday morning to form a national unity government. The move came as the Knesset was preparing to disperse for early elections, which were expected to be scheduled for September 4. Under the agreement, Kadima will join Netanyahu's government and commit to supporting its policies through the end of its term in late 2013. Mofaz is expected to be appointed deputy prime minister, as well as minister without portfolio.