Avigdor Lieberman: Politically Incorrect
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time
by Romesh Ratnesar - July 13, 2009 - 12:00am

For a man reputed to be Israel's biggest loudmouth, Avigdor Lieberman speaks softly. His flat, Russian-accented baritone rarely rises above a murmur. He's not a shouter. But when Lieberman talks, people listen — less because he is Israel's top diplomat than because of his knack for saying decidedly undiplomatic things. Lieberman believes that Israel's Arab citizens, who make up nearly 20% of the population, should be forced to sign oaths of loyalty. He has advocated the death penalty for Arab members of parliament who meet with members of Hamas.

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Netanyahu's paranoia extends to 'self-hating Jews' Emanuel and Axelrod
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - July 9, 2009 - 12:00am

At about 3:15 P.M. yesterday, the government's 100th day in office, political correspondents' beepers went off. In an unprecedented move, the Prime Minister's Bureau was inviting the correspondents to a press conference at the Knesset that was slated to begin in 15 minutes. This was the start of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's panicked, disproportionate response to the criticism senior Kadima politicians had leveled at him three hours earlier.

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Netanyahu's 'weakness' is good for Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Gideon Levy - (Opinion) July 9, 2009 - 12:00am

Benjamin Netanyahu has absorbed 100 smears, one for each day on the job. Who has not excoriated the "squeezable" - now the most fashionable word in town - prime minister? Granted, this is not a bottle of catsup we are talking about, but rather a sitting prime minister. Nonetheless, there are advantages in this particular trait of Netanyahu's, even if it is, of course, limited consolation.

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The left went to the beach
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - (Opinion) July 8, 2009 - 12:00am

A huge omission lies in the American demand that Israel freeze construction in the settlements. President Barack Obama and his aides failed to stir an internal Israeli debate on the settlements and did not pose a political or public challenge to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding his insistence that "natural growth" be allowed beyond the Green Line.

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Bibi Needs Tzipi
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - (Opinion) July 1, 2009 - 12:00am

The dispute with the United States over the settlement freeze is a futile controversy serving only one purpose: to bolster the status of the administration of President Barack Obama as an honest broker in the eyes of the Palestinians and the Arab states, in contrast to that of his predecessor, which was seen in Ramallah, Cairo and Riyadh as serving Israel. Obama wants to show that he can bend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. That is not necessarily bad for Netanyahu.

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Bibi’s inner circle
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Leslie Susser - June 29, 2009 - 12:00am

Benjamin Netanyahu’s father, the historian Ben Zion Netanyahu, once said that his son's biggest failure as a leader was his inability to pick the right people to advise him. Now prime minister for a second time and facing major decisions on Iran, the Palestinians and the Arab world -- not to mention ties with the United States -- Netanyahu has picked what looks like a strong but possibly too like-minded team. These are the more influential members of the inner circle Netanyahu has put together in the weeks since taking office.

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PM faces rebellion from Likud activists
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gil Hoffman - June 17, 2009 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu received the backing of his ministers and most of the Likud faction regarding his plans for a demilitarized Palestinian state, but will have a harder time obtaining the support of the Likud central committee, party activists said on Tuesday. Top Likud central committee members have begun an effort to obtain the 1,000 signatures necessary to force an emergency meeting without the approval of Netanyahu and committee head Communications Minister Moshe Kahlon.

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Netanyahu meets MKs ahead of Sunday's policy address
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
June 12, 2009 - 12:00am

Ahead of a foreign policy speech Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is expected to deliver Sunday, where he will outline his vision for the future of Israel and the region, the prime minister met coalition partners for discussions.

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PM feels he can go left, keep coalition
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gil Hoffman - June 11, 2009 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu does not believe that any of the parties in his coalition would leave at this stage if his diplomatic policies shifted leftward in Sunday's address at Bar-Ilan University's Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, sources close to Netanyahu said Thursday. A look at the pressures Netanyahu is facing ahead of his policy speech on Sunday

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Hostage to Israel’s far right
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Le Monde Diplomatique
by Joseph Algazy, Dominique Vidal - May 1, 2009 - 12:00am

David Rotem’s leitmotif is allegiance to the state, but he never spells it out. So much so that, before leaving, we put it to him: “Imagine yourself in Nazi Germany. Where would your loyalty lie?” “To the state,” he replied, without blinking an eye. That retort, given in the Knesset building in Jerusalem, left us stunned, particularly since he went on to tell us how his father left Germany when Hitler came to power.

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