Avigdor Lieberman, the head of the hard-line Israel Beiteinu Party, center, is surrounded by family members gathered to watch exit polls on television at his parents' house in Jaffa, a section of Tel Aviv, on Tuesday, March 28, 2006. The party, which would like to redraw Israel's borders to put fewer Arabs and more Jews inside, posted a double-digit showing as expected, with 12-14 seats in the parliament.
Photo: AP
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Yisrael Beitenu Party Included in Israeli Government
// Ehud Olmert Even Finds a Ministry Spot for Avigdor Lieberman
Today the Israeli parliament is due to confirm a coalition agreement signed by the Kadima and Yisrael Beitenu parties. The inclusion of the hardline Yisrael Beitenu party in the cabinet is expected to save Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert from being forced to leave office by his dismal popularity ratings in the aftermath of last summer's war in Lebanon. Mr. Olmert even came up with a new ministry post for Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Lieberman: minister for questions of strategic threats. Meanwhile, the left-wing Avoda party has threatened to quit the government in protest.
Polls carried out after the end of the war in Lebanon indicated that 70% of Israelis would not support the current prime minister if new elections were held. Mr. Olmert was sharply criticized for his reluctance to create an independent commission to investigate the military and political mistakes made by his government during the military campaign in Lebanon. Growing dissatisfaction within the Avoda party, which was until recently the main partner of Kadima in Mr. Olmert's ruling coalition, eventually led to open revolt by deputies in the Knesset against the party line and forced Mr. Olmert to look elsewhere for reliable support.
After considering and rejecting Meretz and Likud, Mr. Olmert was left with Avigdor Lieberman's right-wing Yisrael Beitenu party. Mr. Lieberman's party is made up largely of emigrants from the former USSR (Mr. Lieberman himself came to Israel from Moldova in the 1970s). The question of including Yisrael Beitenu in the cabinet has been being debated since last spring's parliamentary elections, in which the party did well, and Mr. Lieberman is even being touted by some as a future contender for Mr. Olmert's seat as prime minister.
At that time, however, Mr. Lieberman's politics – he opposes the new plan for partition with the Palestinians, the introduction of new laws on secular marriages, and plans to change the Israeli government model from a parliamentary democracy to a presidential democracy – made him a poor fit for Mr. Olmert's government. After the war, however, the partition plan lost ground, and Mr. Lieberman, according to observers, quickly "tired" of the limited possibilities for action available to the opposition.
After talks with the prime minister on Monday, Mr. Lieberman declared that Israel faces strategic threats from Iran, Syria, and the radical Palestinian movement Hamas, which leads the Palestinian Authority in Gaza. That evening, Kadima and Yisrael Beitenu signed a coalition agreement in which Yisrael Beitenu promises unswerving loyalty to the ruling party and agrees to support legislation on secular marriage and government reform. In return, Yisrael Beitenu will receive a single ministry post, though its 11 parliamentary deputies technically could have demanded three or four spots. Avigdor Lieberman will become deputy prime minister and will assume the newly-minted title of minister for questions of strategic threats. Mr. Lieberman will also take a seat in the security cabinet and will be responsible for working with the "Native" bureau, which deals with Jewish issues in the CIS.
Mr. Lieberman's surprising pliability on many of the issues discussed in the coalition agreement is interpreted by many analysts as an eagerness to leave the opposition behind and get his foot in the cabinet door, even if that means accepting a vaguely-defined ministry position instead of the Ministry of Internal Security spot he had coveted at the time of the elections.
Yisrael Beitenu has also dropped its calls for an independent commission, leading many to charge that the party is hypocritically saving Mr. Olmert from his mistakes in Lebanon.
The deal between Yisrael Beitenu and Kadima leaves the left-wing Avoda party and its leader, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, in a tight spot. Avoda has long considered Yisrael Beitenu to be its main opponent in the Knesset: one of Avoda's leaders has even said that Avigdor Lieberman himself is a strategic threat and that the party should quit the government in protest rather than work in a coalition with Yisrael Beitenu. Avoda will make its final decision by next Sunday's session of the ruling parties.
Grigory Asmolov (Jerusalem)
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 25, 2006
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