Check out the opening number from Madonna’s September 1st concert before 50,000 fans in Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park:
Here’s Madonna and Israeli opposition leader and former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni after a night of partying in Tel Aviv:
Tzipi And Bibi Meet In Attempt To Form New Israeli Government
Likud chief Benjamin Netanyahu and Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi Livni failed to come to agreement on various issues that would allow for the formation of a national unity government, though the two party heads did agree to meet again later this week following their sit-down at Jerusalem’s Inbal Hotel.
Speaking last night to reporters after their first meeting since the February 10 election, Livni said there are still “profound differences” between the two parties’ positions on the peace process and talks with the Palestinians. “I will be taking Kadima into the opposition,” she said. “Netanyahu has asked for another meeting and I agreed. As far as I am concerned, this meeting has changed nothing.”
“In the coming days, I will make an effort to form a national unity government in light of the significant challenges the State of Israel faces,” Netanyahu told reporters. “This is what is needed now and this is the nation’s desire.”
Netanyahu hinted at the disagreements that emerged between him and Livni during their talks. “In my view, we can bridge the gaps on various issues with good will,” he said. “But if people look for a way not to, they find it. It is possible and it is necessary to find a common way.”
Netanyahu said he is convinced that the people want a unity government and that he “hope[s] to find the way vis-a-vis the leadership of Kadima and the Labor Party.”
Livni’s Kadima party won the February 10 election taking 28 Knesset seats to Likud’s 27, however Netanyahu was taked with forming the new government after it became clear that the majority of Knesset members backed his efforts.
A Close Race In Israel
The Associated Press reports that final opinion polls before Israel’s election showed a narrowing race but still projected a victory by Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party.
A series of polls in Israeli newspapers gave Likud a slight lead over Tzipi Livni’s centrist Kadima Party in the Tuesday ballot.
One poll showed Likud winning 27 seats, compared with 25 seats for Kadima. But the poll predicted that Likud and the other nationalist parties could together garner as many as 66 seats, compared with only 54 for centrist and more dovish parties.
Netanyahu and Livni champion very different approaches in peacemaking.
Livni has been the chief negotiator with the Palestinians in a year of peace talks and supports an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank to allow the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu says no agreement is possible in the foreseeable future, and instead says he will try to jump-start the Palestinian economy while continuing Israel’s military occupation indefinitely.
Netanyahu Refuses To Rule Out Palestinian State
In a possible sign of moderation, Likud chairman Binyamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu and three quarters of the Likud’s candidates declined to sign a loyalty oath ruling out a Palestinian state that was distributed to all the parties on the Right.
The Jerusalem Post reports that Netanyahu addressed the matter in a meeting with supporters in Jerusalem. At the meeting he ruled out future unilateral withdrawals and warned about the creation of a Palestinian state but declined to rule it out.
“Any Palestinian state that would be formed under the current conditions would become an Iranian state as we saw happen in Gaza,” Netanyahu said. “[But] we all must work to advance peace while considering reality.”
Netanyahu’s associates said he did not want to govern a single Palestinian, and under certain circumstances he would agree to a state with limited sovereignty and powers.
