In the chaos that was Israel's election and following the ouster of former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tzipi Livni, you may have missed this now outdated but no less sinister piece of information...
From Skynews.com: Netanyahu Unveils 'Hotch Potch' Government
8:12am UK, Tuesday March 31, 2009, Dominic Waghorn, Middle East correspondent
Benjamin Netanyahu comes in from the wilderness today after 10 years in opposition to return for a second stint in power as Israeli Prime Minister. (This is not the sinister bit - read on).
Many see Netanyahu's Middle East peace pledge as an empty gesture. It has taken him seven weeks of horse-trading to cobble together a coalition government. You can call it a broadly balanced centrist government or a terrible hotch potch of disparate groups, depending on your point of view.
(This is the sinister bit). From the right, there is Avigdor Lieberman (pictured) once a nightclub bouncer, now ultranationalist leader of the Yisrael Beitenu party. To his critics he is racist, anti-Arab and extremist.
He once pleaded guilty in court to hitting a child in the face and he is currently being investigated for corruption. He will be the government's foreign minister (and is now also deputy Prime Minister). Lieberman is right-wing but fervently secular, an opponent of the religious factions that have such power in Israel's diverse, small-party politics. ends.
My comment: 'May the Keeper of Israel watch over them and their Arab neighbours.'
UPDATE 31st May 2009. A real anti-democratic ugly is about to be perpeyrated by Avigdor Liberman and his party. Read here.
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