T. Belman. Did Bibi go along with the Blair initiative while at the same time working toward the Liberman deal instead? Or did he really want the Herzog deal? I think the former.
Former British PM and Quartet envoy reportedly led the failed move add the Zionist Union to the coalition.
Former British Prime Minister and Quartet envoy Tony Blair was one on a list of several international figures behind the failed move designed to legitimize the addition of the Zionist Union to the coalition, Haaretz and Channel 10 News revealed on Wednesday.
Two sources in the Israeli political system quoted in Haaretz said that Blair, while coordinating with and updating opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, is the one who pushed and encouraged Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s speech in which he called on Israeli political parties to agree on the need to advance the framework for peace with the Palestinians.
Of course, it appears that the move has failed for now, as Herzog froze the talks with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, after the latter turned to Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman and offered him the Defense Ministry if he joins the coalition.
While an announcement on Yisrael Beytenu joining the government has yet to be made official, the sides are engaging in talks and sources on both sides said Wednesday night Liberman could join the coalition as soon as Thursday.
Haaretz noted in its report that although Blair ended his stint as Quartet representative to the Middle East months ago, he has continued to act independently to restart the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, and Israel and the Arab world.
Blair visited Israel and other countries in the region every two or three weeks, almost always meeting with Netanyahu as well as Herzog, updating them on his talks with Arab leaders, according to the newspaper.
Blair’s consistent message during these meetings was that Sunni Arab nations are willing and prepared for a breakthrough in relations with Israel, but it depended on steps Israel took in Judea, Samaria and Gaza to demonstrate advancement of the two-state solution.
Political sources involved in the matter were quoted by Haaretz as having said that in recent weeks, against the backdrop of Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon’s agreement on passing a two-year budget (instead of one year at a time), Blair realized that the Israeli government would stand firm until 2019. Blair thought the only way to advance a diplomatic move between Israel and the Palestinians, with the involvement of Arab nations, would be to bring the Zionist Union into the coalition.
Last week, while visiting Cairo, Blair reportedly worked on recruiting senior Egyptian figures to the plan. One political source says Blair is the one who suggested that Sisi make the speech he gave Tuesday with a message to the Israeli people and their political parties about the need to move forward in the peace process with the Palestinians.
According to the source, Blair’s activity vis-à-vis the Egyptian presidential office was fully coordinated with Herzog.
Blair also coordinated with Kerry, informing him of the talks with Herzog, Netanyahu and Sisi. A political source quoted by Haaretz said that subsequent to Blair’s actions, Kerry considered putting off publishing a Quartet report criticizing “Israeli settlement construction” until he knew whether the Zionist Union would join the coalition. American officials have denied this claim.
Until Tuesday afternoon, the report continued, all was going according to Blair’s plan. Sisi gave the speech with the messages Blair had coordinated with Egypt. Herzog hastened to announce that he applauded the speech and said that Israel should not miss the diplomatic opportunity. A few minutes later, Netanyahu also made an announcement welcoming Sisi’s remarks and saying he was willing to cooperate with a diplomatic move led by Egypt.
But in the following hours, talks between Netanyahu and Herzog started to fall apart and finally collapsed just after midnight, leading to his turning to Liberman.
According to Haaretz, Netanyahu realized that Herzog did not have the backing of a majority of his Knesset faction for joining the coalition, and didn’t want to take the risk of making such far-reaching diplomatic undertakings.
“Neither Blair, Sisi nor Herzog could understand how Netanyahu wound up going with Liberman,” said a political source. “Blair thought he could engineer the Netanyahu government and Herzog counted on the international embrace that Blair arranged for getting him into the government. It didn’t work.”
Blair’s office did not wish to comment. Herzog’s office also declined to comment. The U.S. State Department also did not respond to a request for comment.
I think he wanted Herzog but Liberman was is fall back option… He never wanted a center right wing government and was always looking to bring in Labor he did the same in evey past government he headed except the first and they dumped him after three years he learned his lesson but above all he wants to stay in power and will do anything to stay there hence Liberman. Liberman hates him and will bring BB down if he gets crossed and BB knows this but as I said it is what it is and BB wants to stay in power at all costs so he will continue to manipulate as much as he can with the cards he was dealt.
BB is no ideologue just a weasel politician who craves power money and perks of power….
Every foreign instititution is meddling in israeli internal affairs. The real criminals are the Israeli foreign paid moles who jump to their tune in politics and the media. this espionage and destabilization network has even reached into the military in an attempt to create a soft coup. Yaalon has been deposed but not yet indicted or charged with the crime of using his position of power to influence and obstruct justice. he keeps talking of moral values as a red herring to avoid the elephant in the room of his very serious crimes which have been demonstrated now to be a patterns from Duma to the soldier. Was yaalon in on the network, was that his motive? who knows, but certainly he appears guilty of serious criminal offenses that no one appears interested in pursuing. when folks in high office get away with those crimes they become arrogant and begin to think they should be king. The damaged parties should bring suit and also demand criminal indictments. Its time that protection was removed from those carrying out the instructions of the foreigners against the Jews. yaalon needs the same incarceration for which he framed the Jews . He should not be allowed to hide behind his mouth and escape justice.
Israel needs a purge of the foreign paid and directed moles in the media and politics…. indictments and trials are needed to break their hold and their desire to sabotage the democracy. Encouraging the military to rebel against the political command is one more of yaalons crimes.
the trouble for the Jews always comes from the euros and those Judenrat willing to cooperate with the Jew killers.