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Left-wing justice minister says IDF operation in Gaza is "unavoidable"; Kerry meets Egyptian leaders in Cairo in attempt to forge resolution to conflict between Israel, Hamas. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni dismissed on Tuesday the possibility of an imminent halt in fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, adding that the IDF ground incursion in the Strip was impossible to avoid. Related: • US, UN pushing hard for immediate cease-fire in Gaza "There is no real option for a cease-fire now. This operation is unavoidable," the left-wing minister told Army Radio. "Hamas is not close to a cease-fire in terms of...

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni on Wednesday said that Israeli society is becoming more and more right-wing and religious. Speaking at a conference of the leadership of the Kibbutz movement, Livni said that while she served as foreign minister, one of her colleagues told her that in the past there were only a few countries that were not sympathetic to Israel, but in the present there are only two or three European countries that are still ready to stand up for Israel, but are finding it difficult to do so...

As polls show strong support for Jewish Home among the electorate – and rapidly slipping support among voters for her Hatnua party – Justice Minister Tzippy Livni said Thursday that as far as she was concerned, the party headed by Nafatali Bennett had no place in the coalition. “Jewish Home is a party based on deep ideological and religious ideas which will never allow Israel to sign a peace treaty with the Palestinians,” Livni said. “They have no place in the government.” ..... A new poll released Monday shows that if elections were held today, Jewish Home would get 19...

Former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni insisted that she turned to US Secretary of State John Kerry and urged him not to allow the Palestinian Authority (PA) draft resolution to go to vote before elections "with Israel's interests in mind" during a Channel 10 interview Saturday night. "I turned to Kerry to safeguard the interests of the State of Israel, to prevent the world's coercion of Palestinian demands on Israel," Livni insisted. "I'm glad I did it and I'm glad that things I do have an impact on the world, what can not be said about Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu." Livni...

U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians will result in dramatic Israeli decisions, the chief Israeli negotiator predicted on Tuesday. Tzipi Livni coupled her forecast with acknowledgement that at least one partner in Israel's right-wing coalition opposed the goal set by the United States, which is brokering the talks, to create a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel. Livni, speaking on Israel Radio, said "there will be dramatic decisions" by Israel at the end, and negotiators had agreed not to disclose details about their deliberations in order to build trust. "We are arguing, but we are arguing inside the...

U.S. President George W. Bush has declined to meet with former Prime Minister and current Likud Opposition Leader MK Binyamin Netanyahu during his upcoming visit to Israel, slated to begin on Wednesday, according to the Jerusalem Post. Sources in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Kadima party quoted in the report offered this explanation: “At the White House, they think [Mr. Netanyahu] is a liar because of his behavior when he was prime minister.” Outraged Likud officials accused Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of sabotaging what would normally be a routine meeting between a visiting U.S. President and an Israeli Opposition Leader, a...

A Panels Politics poll conducted for the Knesset Channel predicts that Kadima – until recently the Knesset's largest party with 28 seats – will receive 3 seats in the next Knesset. Most other polls predict that Kadima, which was created by Ariel Sharon following the Gaza Disengagement, will completely disappear from the Knesset. Otzma Leyisrael, headed by MKs Aryeh Eldad and Michael Ben Ari, also receives three seats in this poll. The poll is largely consistent with most other polls in showing that Likud / Yisrael Beytenu will receive 35 seats, whereas Labor would receive 17 seats. Bayit Yehudi would...

Tzipi Livni, who chairs the Hatnua party, slammed on Wednesday what she termed "the extremists" in her former party, the Likud. Livni, who visited a bar in Tel Aviv, warned that a coalition between these Likud extremists and the Jewish Home would be a threat to Israel. "Extremists are taking over our lives and if we do not stop them today - we'll end up in a situation that is dangerous for Israel," Livni said. "These extremists are now in the Likud in the form of (Moshe) Feiglin, (Tzipi) Hotovely, (Yariv) Levin and others - they are in the same...

Tzipi Livni, who is running for Knesset at the head of an independent party, blamed Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett for the violence at the Oz Tzion outpost near Beit El Friday. "Bennett and the extremist rabbis led people to that hilltop on purpose, in order to create friction with IDF soldiers and a situation in which they would refuse orders," Livni wrote on her Facebook page. "These extremists led the people there on Sabbath eve in the knowledge that our children, the IDF soldiers, would have to evict them," she explained. "Netanyahu, who continues to wink toward the extremist...

Shaul Mofaz, Kadima chaiman responded to remarks made by Bennett to Channel 2 during an interview in which he said, "If I would receive an order to remove a Jew from his house and expel him, me personally, my conscience would not allow it. I would ask the commander for an exemption." Mofaz reacted, saying, "There is no place in Israel, not in the regular army and not in the reserve army, to disobey orders. One's political views should not affect his ability to perform a task. An evil spirit calling for disobedience in exchange for a handful of votes...

Former Kadima chair Tzipi Livni held a news conference at 12:00 noon to announce that she is running for the 19th Knesset at the helm of an independent party, "The Movement – Headed by Tzipi Livni." Livni met Monday with another former Kadima chair, Ehud Olmert, and informed him of her decision. According to a Maagar Mochot poll published Thursday, a list headed by Livni would garner nine Knesset seats and "steal" seats from Labor, which would get only 19, and Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid (Future) party, which would get 4 seats. Lapid has offered Livni the Number Two position...

Former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will announce that she is running for Knesset at the helm of a political party this week – most likely on Tuesday, according to reports. Livni will not form a new party but rather take over a non-functioning party, Hetz, which was registered several years ago by ex-Shinui minister Avraham Poraz. Leftist pundits are unanimous in estimating that Livni's party will further split the already fractured left wing in the next election. Polls project that Livni's party will receive as many as 10 seats, and according to a Maariv poll it is expected to take...

Chairman Shaul Mofaz of the Kadima party said, Sunday evening, that it was possible to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority. Addressing the forum of deputy mayors, the former defense minister said, "If we do not reach reach an agreement during this period, we will reach a third intifada [Arab uprising -ed.]." .....

Tzachi Hanegbi of Kadima, a former minister, announced several days ago that he plans to return to his first political home – Likud. In an event Thursday night, he started to gather disgruntled Kadima members in an attempt to bring as many party members as possible back to Likud with him. Hanegbi addressed those at the event and explained his disapproval for current Kadima head MK Shaul Mofaz, and his disagreement with Mofaz’s decision to leave the coalition. Mofaz’s hasty exit from the coalition just weeks after joining upset many of his own MKs. He made the decision to leave...

Elections may be imminent as the debate over the draft--and whether the ultra-orthodox are exempt--leads to the end of Netanyahu's grand coalition Well, that didn’t last long. The newest and largest member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition voted to leave it on Tuesday, ankling the government not quite 10 weeks after joining. Kadima, the center-right party that averted elections by joining Netanyahu’s coalition in May, voted overwhelmingly to return to opposition after Netanyahu chose to side with religious parties in the divisive question of a universal draft. Kadima’s departure does not guarantee new elections. Netanyahu’s remaining coalition members continue to...

Kadima party chairman Shaul Mofaz angrily rejected a planned meeting to meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Tuesday after the Prime Minister dissolved a panel, led by Kadima, for a new draft law. Prime Minister Netanyahu disbanded the committee, headed by Kadima Knesset Member Yochanan Plesner, without Cabinet approval, a move that could be a political ploy to put Mofaz in a corner and force him to quit the national unity coalition that is only several weeks old. The committee was working on legislation to replace the “Tal Law,” which focuses on the enlistment of hareidi religious youth, with an...

The Prime Minister's Bureau has contacted all ministers and deputy ministers and made clear that the government opposes the proposed Regulation Law that will come up for a vote Wednesday. The law would make it possible to compensate land owners who were wronged in construction of communities in Judea and Samaria, without having to hand over the land or tear down homes built upon it. Channel 2 News reported that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's men made clear to the ministers and deputies that if any of them vote in favor of the Regulation Law, they will be fired from the...

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.

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....

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...