Netanyahu signs coalition deal, names
far-right Lieberman defense chief
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[May 25, 2016]
By Jeffrey Heller
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and his choice for defense minister, ultranationalist
Avigdor Lieberman, signed a coalition agreement on Wednesday and issued
assurances that the most right wing government in Israel's history would
act responsibly.
Once Lieberman is sworn in, Netanyahu will have a government of 66
legislators, widening his current one-seat majority in the
120-member parliament, a goal the Israeli leader has said he has
sought since winning a fourth term last year.
Lieberman's return to office - he was previously foreign minister -
has raised questions at home and abroad given his past criticism of
Israel's Arab minority, U.S.-sponsored peace talks with Palestinians
and regional powers Egypt and Turkey.
At the signing ceremony, in which Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu party
formally agreed to join Netanyahu's Likud, both men switched from
Hebrew to English to deliver a message to the international
community.
"My government remains committed to pursuing peace with the
Palestinians, pursuing peace with all our neighbors," said
Netanyahu. "My policy has not changed. We will continue to pursue
every avenue for peace, while ensuring the safety and security of
our citizens."
 He said a broader and more stable government would make it easier to
"seize new opportunities" in the region, a reference to potential
peace moves with Arab states that share Israel's concern about
Islamist militancy and Iran.
Palestinian officials said that with Lieberman, who lives in a
settlement in the occupied West Bank, back in the cabinet as defense
minister prospects for reviving statehood negotiations that
collapsed in 2014 had grown dimmer.
But also speaking in English, Lieberman, who once famously
threatened to bomb Egypt's Aswan dam and has called for the
assassination of Hamas Islamist leaders in Gaza, promised a
"responsible and reasonable" policy.
"At the end of the day my intention (is) to provide security and of
course all of us we have a commitment, strong commitment, to the
peace, to the final status agreement (with the Palestinians)," said
the Soviet-born party leader.
Nabil Abu Rdainah, the spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas, said: "What's important is deeds not words... "Israel should
learn the true lesson from making peace because there can be no
peace and no stability in the region unless the Palestinian cause is
resolved."
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Avigdor Lieberman, head of far-right Yisrael Beitenu party, (L) sits
next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) as they sign a
coalition deal to broaden the government's parliamentary majority,
at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem May 25, 2016.
REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Netanyahu began negotiations with Lieberman last week after
coalition talks failed with the center-left Zionist Union, the main
opposition. The courting of Lieberman came as a surprise as he and
Netanyahu have been sharply dismissive of one another.
Several former Israeli defense ministers have criticized Lieberman's
appointment to the sensitive post, citing the politician's relative
lack of military experience.
Yisrael Beitenu has six legislators, but one of them, Orly
Levi-Abekasis, has said she is leaving the party and would vote
independently in parliament, citing what she called its failure to
pursue economic and social reforms.
Levi-Abekasis's spokesman said on Wednesday she was still formally a
member of Yisrael Beitenu as procedural issues had yet to be
finalised.
Yisrael Beitenu will become the sixth party in Netanyahu's
religious-nationalist coalition. The deal prompted Moshe Yaalon, a
Likud member and former general, to quit as defense minister in
protest on Friday.
He could emerge as a future challenger to Netanyahu.
(Additional reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem and Ali Sawafta
in Ramallah; editing by Luke Baker and Ralph Boulton)
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