Yisrael Beiteinu stapt uit regeringscoalitie Israël

Vergeleken met Geert Wilders is Avigdor Lieberman van het rechtse Israel Beiteinu ('Israel ons Thuis') een lieverdje. Toch ben ik er bepaald niet rouwig om dat hij de coalitie verlaat, en dit zal de kansen op vrede in ieder geval niet verkleinen. In Israël stappen partijen wat makkelijker uit (of in) een coalitie dan hier, en ik geloof niet dat men zoiets als een regeerakkoord kent. Deze tussentijdse wisselingen maken een coalitie er niet overzichtelijker op, en komen ook de eenheid niet ten goede.

 

 

Ratna

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Yisrael Beiteinu resigns coalition

Party chief, Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman announces party would be resigning coalition over disagreements with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert regarding core issue negotiations with the Palestinians

Attila Somfalvi - YNET - Published: 01.16.08, 11:13
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3494924,00.html

Fifteen months after being sworn in, Head of Yisrael Beiteinu and Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman announced Wednesday he was resigning his office and that his party was leaving the coalition.

The move, which was announced in a press conference, came just two weeks before the Winograd Commission, probing the Second Lebanon War, plans to release its final report; but the official reason behind the move was disagreements with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert regarding the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on the core issues.

Lieberman's position as minister for strategic affairs was tailored specifically for him in exchange for Yisrael Beiteinu joining the collation, as he was made responsible for gathering "strategic intelligence" on Iran.

Besides Lieberman, Yisrael Beiteinu's Yitzhak Aharonovitch was named tourism minister and MK Stas Misezhnikov the head of the Knesset's Finance Committee.

A shrinking coalition

With Yisrael Beiteinu's now a part of the opposition, Olmert's coalition will now number only 67 MKs and it may be shrinking further: Labor will decide its coalition future after the publication of the Winograd report, Shas is threatening to resign should the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations involve Jerusalem and the Pensioners Party's future is vague as well.

Olmert may try to reinforce his coalition by having the United Torah Judaism Party join his ranks - perhaps by offering it the now-vacant Knesset's Finance Committee chairmanship - and may try to gain the support of Meretz as well.

Yisrael Beiteinu's tenure in the coalition was a stormy one: Its initial joining of the coalition sparked a heated argument in Labor, which resulted in the resignation of MK Ophir Pines-Paz; and one of its senior members, would-be tourism minister MK Esterina Tattman, was implicated in falsifying academic degrees.

Lieberman himself sparked controversy numerous times, saying Amir Peretz' tenure as defense minister was "hazardous," calling for the segregation of Jews and Arabs, and referring to MK Raleb Majadele's (Labor) appointment to science, culture and sport minister as "unfit".