Peres defended the Ramat Shlomo construction because the district is “basically Jewish” and non-negotiable.

Ayalon clearly acted on orders from Lieberman, who also minced no words about Turkey’s behavior.

In the end, Ayalon had to apologize before the Turkish ambassador, though it was actually Turkey which started this round of crisis by launching an anti-Semitic TV show.

It takes a Soviet Union to conduct brutish,  Soviet-style diplomacy.

Under pressure from leftists, the government changed the plan’s map, which now includes 40% Arabs—twice their proportion in Israel’s population.

The development plan, the purpose of which was to compensate settlers for the construction ban, wound up encouraging the Arabs to build more.

Thus, when the duo decided to freeze construction, they did so unreservedly and threatened force. Their cavalier tactics provoked riots in the settlements, and a major anti-freeze rally is scheduled in Jerusalem.

Any decent head of state flies a government aircraft.

Such a blatant violation of local laws and involvement in domestic politics is a standard cause for declaring a diplomat persona non grata, but the Israeli Foreign Ministry ignored the incident.

Lieberman’s plan revamps Israel’s old peripheral strategy, which is aimed at befriending African countries in order to encircle our Arab enemies. The peripheral strategy failed, as the Africans had no particular reason to ally themselves with Jews. Diamond business and small-arms sales are the last vestiges of the defunct policy.

Lieberman’s Third World agenda is a result of the Western governments’ virtually boycotting him.

By seeking to diversify Israel’s foreign ties Lieberman clashes with Jewish leftists, who need the threat of America abandoning us to push for Israeli concessions. The US administration cannot be happy with Israel inroads into the Western hemisphere, the American sphere of influence.

Lieberman’s policy is regrettably still-born.

In a related development, Interior Minister Yishai has rescinded the settlement restriction on illegal African migrants. The criminals are now entitled to live wherever they want.

Israel traditionally limits the Mossad chief’s term to restrict his influence on political matters.

Meir Dagan has been highly successful in restructuring Mossad over the last few years after the agency became a CIA-type behemoth wedded to signal intelligence, without the daring spirit and emphasis on outstanding personnel that was characteristic of its earlier years.

Additionally, Bibi has established the Intelligence Ministry and the Public Diplomacy Ministry. In Orwell’s Oceania, they called it a Ministry of Truth.

Now he’s back.

Bar Lev will take a sinecure as Israeli police liaison in the United States.

Th government has already agreed to increase subsidies to Arab children alongside Jewish. Yeah, as if we need more Arabs here.

Now Netanyahu has reestablished the ministry for Moshe Yaalon.

Israel’s diplomatic losses are plain to see. The two victorious wars, in Lebanon and Gaza, turned into diplomatic and PR defeats; the FM failed to rally friendly Western governments against the Palestinian terrorists who launched thousands of rockets at Israel; and Israel blindly followed the peace process line while the Palestinians even abandoned Arafat’s recognition of Israel.

- increasing the budget for yeshivas (currently religious Jewish children receive less than half the per-capita financing allocated to their atheist compatriots).
- allowing construction in the settlements to accommodate the growing haredi population. Also, state subsidies for haredi construction. And why is investing in useless railroads, pushed for by the Bank of Israel, any better as an anti-crisis measure than building houses?
- portfolio of deputy Education Minister in charge of religious education (it is only right for a religious party to control religious education).

The coalition’s narrowness makes the situation unpredictable. Lieberman, moving increasingly to the left in his Foreign Minister’s position, would lean toward Kadima and the peace camp. Criminal charges against Lieberman would also push him to compromise with the leftist establishment, which can guarantee his safety.
Lieberman can abandon the coalition at any time. So can the National Union, which would soon be dissatisfied over Netanyahu’s clenched-fist attitude toward “illegal” outposts.

Failure to act against Iran could also break Netanyahu’s government, unless he accepts the peace process and brings Kadima on board. He can also drag in a few MKs from Kadima with ministerial sinecures.

Livni, jealous of Netanyahu for stealing her victory, is theoretically two votes away from the prime ministership. Netanyahu is trying to block her by effectively repealing the impeachment provision. It is also unclear whether all Arab parties would support her, or whether she would fall so low as to enlist their support to overthrow Netanyahu.

The narrow coalition may become a reasonably effective right-wing government, or a totally dysfunctional one if UTJ continues quarreling with Lieberman, pushing him to embrace Livni. Netanyahu cannot afford to antagonize a single coalition MK, and it remains to be seen whether that will paralyze him or make a right-winger.

Barak is Netanyahu’s worst choice for defense minister: it took Olmert’s strength and politicking to attack Syria and Gaza over Barak’s objections. Soft Netanyahu is unlikely to push Barak to attack Iran.

As a condition for joining the government, Barak demands that Justice Minister Friedman be ousted. The left hate Friedman because he challenges their judicial monopoly. Since the 1970s, when the left lost its political monopoly to Likud, it has ruled the country by perpetuating its control of the courts and police. The trick is, Israeli courts appoint their own members: old leftists appoint new ones. Friedman wants the government or legislature to appoint judges.

After Clinton’s visit, undoubtedly as a gesture to her, Ehud Barak proceeded to dismantle checkpoints in Judea and Samaria, which had proved irritatingly effective in intercepting Arab terrorists. A few dozen settlers currently demonstrate against his decisions near Tarkumia checkpoint, close to Hebron.

Still, the vast majority of Israelis want Barak to continue as defense minister.

Gilad implied that he received his original instructions for negotiating with Hamas from Barak, but that Olmert changed Israel’s stance later specifically to frame his defense minister. In 2008, Barak pushed for a truce with Hamas despite Olmert’s opposition. By tying the truce to the problematic prisoner exchange, Olmert subverts Barak’s rapprochement with Hamas.

Netanyahu cannot accept Barak as defense minister in his government because he would overpower Bibi.

Bibi also reiterated his trademark program of massive economic assistance to Palestinian Arabs in the futile expectation of luring them away from terrorism. He ignores that the world’s prime supporters of terrorism—Saudis, Qataris, Kuwaitis, and a few Pakistani oligarchs—are rather rich.

Both Netanyahu and Lieberman lie to their voters on the conversion issue. The government already has several programs for quickie conversion of the Slavs the Jewish Agency imported from the Soviet Union. The most simple of them requires merely three months of army service. The religious establishment, of course, don’t recognize the fakes, and the government cannot burn rabbis on the stake to make them recant.

Civil marriage for non-Jews is no problem; if Muslims are entitled to their own family legislation, why not the Slavs? Civil marriage for Jews takes the hypocrisy out of the process, but also the Jewishness.

As we have expected, Lieberman leans toward forming a government with Likud, despite the electoral support he received from Kadima. His Napoleonic demands for ministerial portfolios are unlikely to be met, as the defense ministry is reserved for Barak and the finance ministry is critical for Likud.

On a positive note, one Likud faction recommended forming a narrow right-wing government without Kadima. A wider coalition, though, could better withstand Obama’s pressure, and it is possible that Kadima might become more hawkish in a right-wing government.

Kadima is pushing Lieberman into the coalition with the stick of forming a government with Netanyahu as prime minister. This would leave Lieberman no portfolios and force him into opposition.

Olmert is pushing to continue the operation, and the Security Cabinet supports him.

It was a stupid idea to unseat Olmert on irrelevant corruption charges and replace him with Livni, who is more concerned about world opinion than Jewish security.

Israeli government previously brought Arafat the terrorist from Tunis to cut a deal with him. After that failed, Israel supported Hamas against the Fatah-PLO. After that, too, failed Israel released Abbas to replace the thankfully dead Arafat. Now that Abbas failed, the leftists want to release Barghouti who cannot pass even their “judicial test” of having no Jewish blood on his hands, as he is sentenced for multiple murders. Barghouti’s son was wounded today in fighting between rival terrorist factions.

Ben-Eliezer frightens us to believe that unless Barghouti is freed and a Palestinian state is established, Israel would become a binational state. The crooked minister ignores the fact that regardless of whether a Palestinian state is established, Israel is already a binational state as Arabs constitute 34% of her young. But the binational problem has a biblically mandated solution: expulsion of Arabs rather than giving Arabs the Holy Land.

Which, of course, is not holy to the likes of Ben-Eliezer.