I find it amazing that an investigation that has been going on for about 7-8 years against Avigdor Lieberman can be pretty dead in the water, and then suddenly jump to life.

Nothing happens in the open investigation for years. Suddenly, two-three weeks before elections, with Lieberman's star seemingly on the rise, and all of the sudden the police detains 7 of his confidantes as part of the ongoing investigation.

What is the most amazing is how blatant and clear the bias against him is. They don't even try to hide it.

Here is [part of] the press conference earlier today in which Avigdor Lieberman announced he is leaving the government coalition..

Is Olmert extending his grip on the seat of the Prime Ministership by killing Palestinians?

Just yesterday Olmert announced that he still does not approve any incursion or action in Gaza.

Today Avigdor Lieberman was to meet (I think they are meeting now) with Olmert to discuss the government's diplomatic moves. Olmert and Livni are leading talks with the PA that include negotiations over the core issues of Jerusalem.

Yisrael Beiteinu, led by Avigdor Lieberman, has come out against these talks and announced that when the government begins talks on the "core issues" they will leave the coalition. Lieberman is against negotiating over the core issues, and especially right now - he says there are many things to be discussed before getting to the core issues, so to discuss them now is premature. He announced he would leave the government when such discussions take place.

These discussions are officially taking place now.

Lieberman, in anticipation of a possible announcement that he is leaving the government, is meeting with Olmert to clarify what is exactly being negotiated. Olmert is expected to try to convince Lieberman to stay in the coalition.

With Lieberman expected to announce his decision tonight, suddenly today Olmert approves an offensive in Gaza that has so far killed 17 Palestinians (as long as they continue shooting rockets at Israel, as long as they support a government of terror, as long as they continue to hold Gilad Shalit captive, I will say "phoot phoot phoot", "the more the merrier", "kein yirbu", etc.).

So has Olmert approved this attack in Gaza simply so he could come to Lieberman with something in his hand's? He can now say "Look at how I fight terror", so stay in the government. I will protect Israel's interests even though you are against these negotiations.

Is Olmert buying his stay in power on the blood of the Palestinians? hmmmm

This will, of course, be added to his purchase of power with the Shastitutes. Olmert created a new ministry, the Ministry of Religious Affairs, specifically to give to Shas so they would not abandon the government coalition. This was just approved yesterday.

Yitzchak Cohen, the MK from Shas who has been appointed the Minister of religious Affairs, claims that it was necessary to create the ministry just to give him the authority (that had been handled by him under the auspices of the Prime Minister's Office until now) so he could ensure proper payments of salaries to the Rabbis and mikva attendants and others who have not been paid for months.

Why he could not use the responsibility he had as running the department when it was under the PMO with his management, and only now that it is his ministry, I do not know.

But Olmert bought Shas by giving themthis ministry and all the budgets and jobs that come with it.

So he has now bought an extension of power by bribing Shas, and killing Palestinians for Lieberman.

Whatever it takes.

Avigdor Lieberman, the Minister for Strategic Affairs (whatever that is) and the head of Yisrael Beiteinu party in the Knesset, criticized the government today for taking down and threatening to remove illegal outposts put up around the West Bank. Lieberman said that Israel cannot discuss the issue of illegal settlement outposts in the West Bank, while ignoring illegal construction in the Negev and Galilee. The Arabs and Bedouin famously erect illegal structures and villages with no permits, and Israel generally ignores it.

In response to Lieberman's attack, Tzippi Livni, the Foreign Minister, wins today's qotd award for saying, "The fact that the law is not enforced in one place is not an excuse for not enforcing it in another"

Actually, it is an excuse. The excuse is called Selective Law Enforcement, otherwise known as "tyrrany".

Or better yet, it is not an excuse, but if you are going to begin enforcing such laws, they should be enforced equally and not whitewashed....

The truth is, that the government does not enforce these laws suddenly because they are so concerned with the rule of law. they use the law as an excuse to implement policy. When the disengagement was in effect, and when they dismantled Amona and Homesh, they passed laws to make these places illegal and then removed the residents and destroyed the homes as enforcement of the law.

If they really cared about the law, as soon as the government decided it was strong enough and capable enough to enforce a certain law, they would implement it equally everywhere. The fact that they do not and only do so selectively is a cynical use of the law and is, in essence, tyrrany.

I was in the car tonight driving to my softball game and they were talking to this guy on the radio. I did not catch his name because I turned it on in the middle of the discussion, but he had been a defense adviser to 4 previous Prime Ministers of Israel; Begin, Shamir, Peres and Rabin.

The discussion was about the latest smoking gun - the Winograd Interim Report being released tomorrow evening (actually tonight, as I am writing this after midnight) and whether the criticism is justified or not.

Despite the fact that the report is being released tomorrow, everybody already knows most of what is contained in the report, as it was partially leaked today. It is practically the only thing being discussed on the radio and in the media right now, rightfully so.

Anyways, this defense guy did not want to criticize the government for the decision making processes used during the war. As he said, he was not there and he only knows what he has heard, but was not part of it. So he was talking theoretically about the general situation.

He raised a very interesting point. He said that the issue is not that Olmert decided to go to war or how he came to the decision or that he was supported in the Cabinet in that decision. His issue is after that decision.

Olmert has been very big, in his attempts to spread the blame and try to tack some blame onto Tzippi Livni and at least make her share some of the fallout, on saying how all the decisions they made in the war were completely supported by the whole Cabinet.

This defense guy said that alone shows there was something wrong with the process. He says it means that probably nobody asked too many questions. maybe somebody pressured them all to just follow the lead.

He brought examples from many of Israel's wars and conflicts from the past 30 years, including Lebanon I, the Gulf Wars, the Intifadas, the attack on Osirak, etc. he showed that the decision making process was never unanimous, and often hanged on one vote in the Cabinet. It was always a battle to get approval for battles and procedures in war. Ministers wanted to know details, they asked questions they showed their disapproval when they felt something could be done better. Decisions were made, but they were always fights.

he said, if decisions in this war passed so easily and were unanimously supported, that indicates something was wrong with the processes used.

This thought of his reminded me of a concept in the Jewish court system. The Talmud tells us that when a beis din would be judging a case of a capital offense, with the death penalty on the line, there was an interesting condition. If the beis din unanimously voted that someone deserved the death penalty for his crime, the person would be let go unpunished. The reason for this, the gemara says, is that there is no way that not a single person on the beis din could not have found some merit by which the defendant deserved to be let off. If it is a unanimous decision to kill him, it means the procedure and discussion were faulty, and then no death penalty can be meted out.

It is important to have open discussions on weighty matters where all viewpoints are presented and considered. When that does not happen, something is being muted.

On another topic, I just want to mention that Tzippi Livni does not deserve to replace Olmert. If they give her the job (not that I think Olmert is going to give it up so quickly, but eventually it will come to it), she will only help destroy Kadima (a good thing in my opinion).

Livni has shown no leadership skills. As Foreign Minister we hardly hear from her. Regarding all the Olmert scandals, her method has been to sit quietly on the side and let Olmert stew. She has not given him her support, as other Kadima members have done, but neither has she criticized him. She is sitting quietly and letting others do the dirty work.

While that is a shrewd method of slipping into the job, she has shown absolutely no leadership. If she would take the high ground and talk against corruption and even against Olmert, she would deserve the job of replacing Olmert. But she is afraid to upset Olmert. I do not know why. Olmert's days as PM are numbered, no matter how you look at it, so I am not sure what she is afraid of.

If she would show leadership, she would be given the position of head of Kadima much sooner. She would help effect Olmert's downfall and she would be in the position to take over. Livni is not a leader.

That being said, depending on how harsh the actual wording of the report is, which we will only find out Monday evening after 5 pm, I think it is important that any of the other political parties in the Olmert government should resign from the government on the guise of not being able to support such a government of failure (supposedly the Report calls it that). If Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu), Labor, or Shas do not make any moves and only show support for Olmert, I think the backlash will be huge later.

Olmert, and right now Kadima by association, is very unpopular. If the government falls in a few months instead of now, the people will be upset at the other parties that let Olmert and his government of failure stay in power for no reason for so long. If the wording is as harsh as it is rumored to be, I hope the other parties will be smart enough to bring Olmert down.If they don't, it will hurt them later.

Of course, if the rumors are inaccurate and the report is not so harsh, then none of this applies.

The most ridiculous thing happened today in Israeli politics.

Esterina Tratman, a Member of Knesset from the Yisrael Beiteinu party, was recently selected to be the new Minister of Tourism. She is a controversial figure to begin with, considering her outspoken opinions on the Arab sector in Israel.

Yesterday it became apparent that Tratman filed a claim with the courts that due to a traffic accident she has memory problems along with a physical disability. By law she is not allowed to work more than 4 hours per day. People are up in arms over the fact that this has been revealed now, as she is being appointed to the very important post of Minister of Tourism.

The bigger issue that broke today is her level of education. She informed the press during an interview yesterday that she holds a bachelors degree in Economics and Marketing and a masters degree in Business Administration.

I guess she assumed the press would not check, but they did. They today announced that she has no degrees and was not a registered student in any of the universities she claimed she graduated from. She never went to college, despite her claims otherwise.

To be honest, her lack of education does not really bother me. True, I would hope our leaders would be educated, but we already have another minister (Science, Culture and Sport) with no formal education, and it would not be the end of the world if she too had no formal education. Maybe she is extremely talented and experienced and would function fine despite no education. She obviously is talented, as she is one of the leaders of one of the, recently, more successful political parties.

The fact that she lied to the press about it, claiming she has higher degrees when she doesn not and it is so easily verifiable, makes her look ridiculous and as someone with bad judgement. How is it that they could not find someone reasonably honest (as politicians go) to appoint?

update - it is getting even more confusing. It turns out now she has a BA but not an MBA, but it seems she also lied about some other filings.... What a crazy story!

There were actually a number of them today. There was the ongoing Haredi violence protesting the gay parade. There was the Haredi stoning of a few buses today in Beit Shemesh to protest the lack of a seperation between the sexes on the bus going through their neighborhood. There was the review of the Rabin rally that took place last night and the fallout of what is seen as the left-wing co-opting Rabin's "legacy" and memorial and excluding any religious and/or right wing.

And then there was Avigdor Lieberman making some statements about the Arabs in Israel. He basically said that Israel needs to get rid of the Arabs and compared the situation to the split of Cyprus between the Greeks and the Turks. He said while it might be difficult durng the process, the end result has been peaceful and successful and would like to replicate that here in Israel. He basically is in favor of a swap of sorts delineating the Arabs/Palestinians and the Israelis.

That created a ruckus. Everybody in the government with him criticized him and his statements and denounced it. Some called for him to be removed from government. Some called for Olmert to tell him off and bring him in line with government policy.

I do not understand what the big huff is all about. Just last week he was not part of the government coalition because of his beliefs that he mentioned today. he was brought into the government with everybody knowing exactly what he believes and what policy he wishes to push. Now they are shocked by his statements? Labor party members who voted to sit with him in government are shocked by what he said? Where were they last week when they voted to participate with him in goverance? What does Olmert mean when he said, "Avigdor speaks for nobody but himself"? After all, he is part of the ruling government? Does he really only speak for himself? Does the fact that Olmert brought him in to government not mean Olmert approves and validates of his opinions, at least on a certain level?

Even mroe than that though is this. Why is what he said so bad and reprehensible to these people? Did Ariel Sharon not carry out almost exactly what Lieberman advocates? Sharon's rallying cry was, "אנחנו כאן והם שם" "We will be here and they will be there". His whole idea was to separate Arab and Israeli and therefore uprooted more than 8000 Jews from their homes (what Lieberman proposes is actually more humane than what Sharon did. The 8000 residents of Gush Katif were uprooted and left to rot, the Arabs under Liebermans plan would be treated well and there would be land swaps and transferrence of homes). Sharon did that and had the support of all the people criticizing Lieberman. Why is his plan racist when Sharon's plan was honorable and worthy?

Was this government not formed on the exact same basis of more realignement and uprooting Jews from their homes? How can any member of this government or anybody else further left criticize Lieberman when they were planning to do the exact same thing?