Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06TELAVIV1774
2006-05-05 14:52:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Tel Aviv
Cable title:  

A SPRING OF LIEBERMAN'S DISCONTENT: NO

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C O N F I D E N T I A L TEL AVIV 001774 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/05/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM IS GOI INTERNAL ISRAELI SOCIETY
SUBJECT: A SPRING OF LIEBERMAN'S DISCONTENT: NO
RUSSIAN-SPEAKING IMMIGRANTS IN CABINET

REF: A. TEL AVIV 1728

B. TEL AVIV 1612

Classified By: A/DCM Norm Olsen for reasons 1.4 (b,d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L TEL AVIV 001774

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/05/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM IS GOI INTERNAL ISRAELI SOCIETY
SUBJECT: A SPRING OF LIEBERMAN'S DISCONTENT: NO
RUSSIAN-SPEAKING IMMIGRANTS IN CABINET

REF: A. TEL AVIV 1728

B. TEL AVIV 1612

Classified By: A/DCM Norm Olsen for reasons 1.4 (b,d).


1. (C) The absence from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's
25-member Cabinet of even a single representative from the
Russian-speaking immigrant community -- despite that
community's electoral strength -- has elicited strong
criticism from Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman and
Kadima MK Marina Solodkin. Ha'aretz reported May 5 that not
since 1996 has there been a Cabinet without any
Russian-speaking immigrants and that Russian-speaking Kadima
members "are already...calling for demonstrations." Poloffs
observed at least a hundred Lieberman supporters
demonstrating outside the Knesset May 4 -- the day the new
government was sworn in. Moscow-born Solodkin, who had been
serving as immigration deputy minister in the interim
government, registered her displeasure for not being
appointed minister of immigration and absorption by absenting
herself from the Knesset's vote of confidence on the new
government. Knesset contacts indicated to poloffs that
Olmert passed over Solodkin because he was dissatisfied with
her ability to attract the Russian-speaking vote to Kadima
during the election. When poloffs met Lieberman May 4
outside the Knesset plenary session, he criticized Olmert for
choosing Ze'ev Boim -- whom he described as Olmert's close
friend -- over Solodkin. Betraying his own frustrations over
being left outside the government, Lieberman gruffly asserted
that Olmert's 67-MK coalition would not last six months.


2. (C) Olmert himself indicated in his May 4 speech
introducing his new government that an impasse exists in
coalition talks with Lieberman, while at the same time he
expressed the belief that he "can complete the (coalition)
negotiations, and reach an agreement with United Torah
Judaism (UTJ) and Meretz." Meretz MK Zahava Gal-On and UTJ
MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni confirmed to poloffs separately May 4
that their respective parties are still involved in coalition
negotiations with Kadima. Lieberman, however, may have fully
burned his bridges to the coalition when, in his May 4 speech
on the new government, he called for a Nuremberg-like trial
for Israeli-Arab MKs who met in April with Hamas members of
the Palestinian Legislative Council and he expressed the hope
that just as Nazi "collaborators" were executed so would this
be the fate of "collaborators" in Israel. Lieberman's
statements prompted Olmert to publicly declare his confidence
that Jewish and Arab MKs alike act in the interest of Israel.



3. (C) Comment: Lieberman's outburst may have cost him any
hope of either entering the government or of seizing the role
of opposition leader from Likud Party Chairman Binyamin
Netanyahu, who holds that mantle as the head of the largest
party in the opposition.

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