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Knesset rejects 3 no-confidence votes The Knesset rejected by wide majority three no-confidence votes issued by opposition parties. (Ilan Marciano) Peres blames Shinui for power of religious party Vice Premier Shimon Peres on Monday blamed the Shinui party for the power the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party has to demand changes in the state budget. "If Shinui would vote in favor of the budget, United Torah Judaism would not have bargaining power," Peres said. (Attila Somfalvi)(02.28.05, 15:27)

Swiss Foreign Minister to visit Israel 6 Feb 2005The Foreign Minister of Switzerland, Micheline Calmy-Rey is interested in learning directly about developments in the peace process, and to meet with the Israeli public. This is Ms. Calmy-Rey’s first visit to Israel. (Communicated by the Foreign Ministry Spokesman) The Foreign Minister of Switzerland, Micheline Calmy-Rey, will arrive in Israel for a visit on Sunday, February 6, as a guest of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. During the course of the visit, Minister Calmy-Rey will meet with the President of Israel Moshe Katsav, Vice Premier Shimon Peres, Vice Prime...

Last Update: 24/01/2005 19:25 Dagan: Egypt, Syria have nuclear programs, as well as Iran By Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service The head of the Mossad intelligence service, Meir Dagan, warned Monday that there are signs that several Middle East states other than Iran - including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria - are at varying stages of development of nuclear programs. Dagan, reviewing the security situation for the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, also warned that the atomic threat posed by Iran will soon reach the point of no return in a nuclear arms race. The Mossad chief...

Jan. 24, 2005 19:36 PM supports giving Israelis right to absentee vote By GIL HOFFMAN Prime Minister Ariel Sharon supports passing a bill to allow Israelis living abroad the right to vote in Israeli elections. Sharon told the Likud faction on Monday that he supported such a bill in the past when it was raised by Moshe Arens and that the matter must be investigated. The faction decided to appoint a high level committee to look into the issue, composed of Justice and Immigrant Absorption Minister Tzipi Livni, coalition chairman Gideon Sa'ar and Knesset Law Committee Chairman Michael Eitan. The...

Expensive, but necessary By Avraham Tal The Finance Ministry budgets director, Kobi Haber, estimates that the total cost of disengagement will reach NIS 5 billion, of which about NIS 2 billion will be security sector spending (the Israel Defense Forces and the police), and NIS 3 billion, civilian compensation for residents and business owners in the in Erez industrial zone. Some NIS 2.2 billion will be allocated this year in the hopes that it will suffice; if not, the hole will have to be filled from the current budget. The budgetary cost of disengagement is far from the whole bill,...

Jan. 10, 2005 22:50 Analysis: A government with no grace period By GIL HOFFMAN Coalition partners Sharon, Peres Usually the first 100 days of a new coalition's tenure are the only time in Israel of genuine political tranquility. Political reporters take a vacation and allow diplomatic reporters to start doing their job, reporting about a functioning government that is temporarily free of political stress. Not this time. Monday's vote on the formation of a new government that passed thanks to the abstentions of Arab MKs and charity votes from Yahad sent Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a warning that he will...

Dec. 29, 2004 20:09 | Updated Dec. 29, 2004 22:12 Likud rebels blocking unity gov't By GIL HOFFMAN Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's troubles forming a national unity government intensified on Wednesday when 13 so-called Likud rebel MKs vowed not to support the appointment of Labor ministers and the disengagement implementation bill. The MKs made the commitment in a letter to United Torah Judaism MKs, in an effort to persuade UTJ not to join the coalition. The letter is seen as a last-ditch effort by the rebels to prevent the implementation of the disengagement plan by forcing Sharon to initiate early...

Dec. 19, 2004 23:40 | Updated Dec. 20, 2004 22:23 Labor, Likud to sign deal Tuesday By GIL HOFFMAN AND NINA GILBERT After nearly two days of delay since Likud and Labor reached a coalition agreement, the two parties have announced that they will finally sign on the deal Tuesday evening, after the Labor party's central committee meeting. The signing was enabled after a preliminary vote in the Knesset on the "double deputy prime minister" bill approved it 56 to 34 on Monday night. The bill, popularly dubbed the "Peres bill," was aimed at resolving the crisis in unity negotiations...

Last Update: 20/12/2004 21:46 MKs okay preliminary reading of bill to make Peres deputy PM By Gideon Alon and Mazal Mualem, Haaretz Correspondents Shimon Peres speaking in the Knesset on Monday, ahead of a vote on a bill that would allow him to become deputy prime minister. (AP) The Knesset on Monday passed the preliminary reading of a bill aimed at allowing Shimon Peres to become a second deputy prime minister, thereby meeting Labor's demands for joining a coalition government under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The draft was approved by a vote of 56 to 34. A senior government official...

Dec. 19, 2004 23:40 | Updated Dec. 20, 2004 17:32 Sharon, Peres push for coalition deal By GIL HOFFMAN The Shas party decided Monday evening to support a bill to amend Basic Law which would allow two vice premiers premiere' in the government, providing the bill with majority support in the Knesset. Shas' decision came as a sign of recognition to Labor leader Shimon Peres for his good relationship with the party over many years, Army Radio reported. With Shas' backing, the Knesset committee approved the vote on the bill by 15 to 5, and the preliminary vote is set...

Dec. 15, 2004 8:29 | Updated Dec. 16, 2004 21:26 Sharon suspends coalition talks By GIL HOFFMANPrime Minister Ariel Sharon and opposition leader Shimon Peres. Photo: AP (File) Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided to suspend coalition talks with Labor on Thursday night to protest comments by Labor negotiating team chair Dalia Itzik that insulted him. In a speech to the Labor convention Itzik accused Sharon of running towards Labor and hinted that the reason why the prime minister does not want to give up the Justice Ministry in negotiations is connect to the ongoing criminal investigation against him. Likud officials...

Dec. 15, 2004 21:06 Larsen: UN is neither anti-Israel nor anti-Semitic By GREER FAY CASHMAN While conceding that relations between Israel and the United Nations are troublesome, Terje Roed-Larsen, whose five-year term as Middle East envoy, is adamant that the UN is neither anti-Israel nor anti-Semitic. Speaking at Tel Aviv University on Wednesday, Larsen said the UN is usually accused of being anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic but UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has been unequivocal in fighting anti-Semitism and declaring that Israel's existence must be safeguarded. Larsen also denied that he personally was in anyway guilty of demonizing Israel. "I don't think...

Dec. 15, 2004 8:29 | Updated Dec. 15, 2004 19:01 PM, Peres try to end coalition crisis By GIL HOFFMAN Prime Minister Ariel Sharon spoke to Labor chairman Shimon Peres on Wednesday evening in an attempt to solve the crisis in coalition talks between Likud and Labor. Senior members of the Likud party fumed over Sharon's offer Tuesday night of the Interior and Communications Ministries portfolios to the Labor party as part of coalition negotiations. In a bid to solve the stalled coalitions talks, Sharon called Peres and offered Labor the Interior Ministry and the Communication portfolio, making it clear...

Peres, Barak compromise on June 29 election By GIL HOFFMAN Labor chairman Shimon Peres and former prime minister Ehud Barak tentatively compromised on a June 29 date for the next Labor leadership race on Thursday, following shuttle diplomacy by Labor faction chair Dalia Itzik. The compromise ended a bitter, week-long confrontation between Peres and Barak that culminated with the intervention of Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz and Police Insp. Gen. Moshe Karadi. But Peres said the compromise was contingent on the agreement of the rest of Labor's top brass ahead of Sunday's key Labor central committee meeting. "I will accept any compromise...

Likud voter turnout climbs to 60 percent By GIL HOFFMANPM: "Either Israel progresses or goes to elections. It's simple: Those who don't vote, sink the boat."PM threatens to call early elections Photo: APAll 26 polling stations at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds opened on time Thursday, after Tel Aviv District Court Judge Uri Goren rejected a petition from Likud 'rebels' trying to block the vote on widening the coalition. As planned, voting began at 10 a.m., with polls scheduled to close twelve hours later. Results are expected at midnight. Low voter turnout lasted throghout Thursday, causing concern to the prime minister's...

Jun. 28, 2004 0:19 | Updated Jun. 28, 2004 0:49Peres: Prepare for elections By TOVAH LAZAROFF Labor Party leader Shimon Peres called for new elections Sunday, on the night before his party was set to bring its first no-confidence motion against the government since the cabinet passed its disengagement plan last month. Labor last week voted against the government in a no-confidence motion on Sharon's economic platform filed by Shas, after abstaining on such motions this month. Today, in a move that returns Labor to an opposition party, it plans to put forward one of its own, also on budgetary...

Benjamin Netanyahu, Shimon Peres, and Francis Fukuyama come together to discuss the end of history in Israel. Tel Aviv FAMOUSLY, Zionism founding father Theodor Herzl proclaimed that the aim of the Jewish state should be to permit Jews to live as a nation like other all other nations. A century later, contradicting his hopes in ways that might have made Herzl proud, Israel continues to distinguish itself. Witness the remarkable gathering of 1,200 Israelis at Tel Aviv University last Monday evening, along with foreign diplomats, from, among other countries, Switzerland, South Africa, Guyana, and Egypt. Under the auspices of the...

Oct. 28, 2003 Incumbents win major cities; PM: Likud achieved greatness By GIL HOFFMAN Only some 41 percent of the 3, 787,760 eligible voters cast their ballots in Tuesday's municipal races by press time, making it the lowest turnout for an election in Israeli history. The turnout was significantly less than the last elections in November 1998 when 57.4 percent voted. Interior Ministry officials blamed the low turnout on the lack of close races in large cities, election day not being a work holiday, voters' lack of confidence in the political system, and the cold weather conditions. Turnout was largest...

Strategic Slyness of the Geneva Accord by Stan Goodenough Oct 27, '03 / 1 Cheshvan 5764 So what's the big deal with the so-called Geneva Accord - the "agreement" concocted by a cabal of Israeli non-officials in cahoots with second-tier Palestinian leaders, and sprung upon the unsuspecting Jewish public just a few days ago? Certainly it has some very dangerous, potentially disastrous elements, chief among them the offering up of Israel's holiest site in exchange for another Palestinian paper promise, this time that they will no longer insist on the "right" of their people to "return" to pre-1967 Israel and...

Even the 80th birthday celebrations Shimon Peres arranged for himself this week could not, thank God, ever turn him into an Israeli prime minister. So we can relax. It was enough to hear Peres's defense of Yasser Arafat, his co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, to realize that Peres is living in an imaginary world. "I want to be honest, and I don't care what they say: I believe it was right to give him the Nobel Prize," said Peres in a speech. He continued: "He made a mistake by failing to dismantle groups opposed to peace with the Jewish...