In order to preserve Lieberman in the coalition government and entice his Knesset faction to vote for the budget, Netanyahu allocated $1.1 billion for Lieberman’s pet projects. Among these is the practically defunct Ministry of Absorption, which will receive $200 million—more than the amount the government sought and failed to find to reinforce public buildings in Sderot.

Our new representative at the barbarian conference has previously served as the Israeli ambassador to Bolivia and Paraguay. He lacks meaningful diplomatic experience, and won’t be able to work effectively in the UN. The only good news is that his predecessor was equally incompetent, so no harm done.

The United States tries its terrorist citizens in military courts, recognizing that siding with the enemy in wartime is an act of de facto citizenship renunciation. Israeli leftists are unable to digest this simple truth, for under such an approach all of them would have to switch to Iranian citizenship.

Despite clear intelligence indicating that the boats were controlled by a militant crowd, the government sent Navy commandos rather than anti-terrorist units. The Marines have only basic training in friend-or-foe recognition during anti-terrorist operations. The government’s choice of troops ensured indiscriminate deaths: 16 were killed, only two of whom had firearms.

The Israeli government put the Marines under stupid and dangerous orders to avoid shooting live ammunition. Only because of those criminal orders were the peaceniks able to snatch two shotguns from the Marines.

Only because of these criminal orders were the peaceniks able to attack the Marines with knives and pipes. Had the government not constrained the Marines from defending themselves, a few shots of live ammunition would have stopped the squabble immediately—and caused no casualties.

The government made this confrontation possible by refusing to let the Navy ram the boats on sight. That way—the standard way, tried successfully in earlier encounters with peaceniks—the passengers would have been forced to abandon their boats, and the Navy could have picked them up from the sea safely.

The Israeli government is guilty of unnecessary interception of the boats, provoking the activists to fight by the well-known prohibition of the use of live ammo, and—most importantly—of endangering Jewish lives by enforcing unrealistic rules of engagement. Consequently, two Jewish Marines were severely wounded, and the government failed the halachic test of unresolved murder, “We did everything in our power to ensure that he wouldn’t be killed.”

Many countries commonly kill illegal migrants at their borders, many more kill those who support their enemies. But Israel is assured of a wave of condemnations over the 16 dead Hamas supporters. Even Egypt, which thankfully kills scores of African migrants at our border, condemned Israel, and so will many other countries.

The country which makes a national sport of suing its PM over petty overbilling charges should pause and look for the real criminals in her government.

Oh really? The Israel PM discussed with Obama’s envoy how the Arabs steal water from our pipes? Surely, as Abbas says, the talks focused on final-status borders.

Netanyahu’s three-hour meeting with Mitchell, who is only a minor official in the Obama administration, contrasts markedly with the cold shoulder Obama gave Netanyahu. But it is too much to ask Israeli leaders for self-respect.

Today, the demolition plans were publicly retracted under US pressure.

(How about if Israel were to protest eminent-domain house demolitions in Florida?)

How so? Egypt, which has been at peace with Israel for three decades, is full of anti-Jewish incitement, even in the government media. Ukraine, a rare ally of Israel, publishes mountains of anti-Semitic literature.

A normal country should not be concerned over what the neighbors think about it. Our only concern must be that the Arabs do not act against us. Herein lies the problem. Unwilling to confront Arab terrorism by proper military means, the Israeli government wants to grow a yet-unseen species of Arab—one which does not hate Jews.

In a related futile development, the government has appointed an Arab-speaking spokesman. As Rabbi Kahane used to say, we should talk to the Arabs—to tell them, No!

The ministry has a habit of banning hi-tech communication devices to justify its own existence and beef up the self-esteem of its personnel.

Immediately, customs officials began confiscating iPads from unsuspecting tourists at Ben Gurion airport. Theoretically, the affected visitors can get their devices back, but most would not arrive at the airport early enough before their departure to make it through the seven rounds of hell of Israeli customs.

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.