Benjamin Netanyahu

JERUSALEM -On Wednesday, President Barack Obama called Israeli President Shimon Peres to congratulate him on the general elections held here the day before. The White House quoted President Obama's remark to President Peres that "the Israeli people should be very happy about the democratic example they have set for the world." The White House went on to tell us that the two men "had a good discussion." Ah, but how did the discussion proceed? Here is my best guess: "Mr. President, let me congratulate you on the general elections held in your country."

THE Israeli elections produced a strong personal mandate for Ehud Barak as prime minister -- and a stinging rejection of the policies and machinations of Benjamin Netanyahu -- but they settled none of the divisions in Israeli society and may even have exacerbated a few.Mr. Barak has no easy tasks ahead of him in working up the unity he wishes for within Israel or in carrying out what he hopes will be the end game in the Middle East peace process. There are forces within and outside the country committed to make each challenge difficult, and impossible if they can.Mr.

BENJAMIN Netanyahu is leaving Israeli politics as stormily as he entered. His departure from the Knesset, as well as from the leadership of Likud, gives that party a chance to recover from its election disaster. Much remains to argue about in coming months, but Mr. Netanyahu won't be the issue.No politician is washed up at 49, though.Mr. Netanyahu won't be far away. If events sour under the prime ministry of Ehud Barak, with security compromised or terrorism renewed, Mr. Netanyahu will retain told-you-so appeal.

JERUSALEM -- When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed off on the deal to withdraw Israeli forces from Hebron last week, he became the first leader of the Likud bloc ever to give away a piece of Eretz Israel -- the biblical Land of Israel.He departed from the fundamental principle of his wing of Zionism: land for peace -- up to a point; biblical Judea and Samaria -- not an inch. For this he was reviled by some of his own staunchest constituents and applauded by the other side.

PARIS -- In little more than a year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has changed from a secular combat to a religious war. A secular conflict is negotiable. A religious conflict is not, since the claims made by both sides have to do with eschatology and destiny. You cannot compromise when what you are struggling for is the expression of God's will.The Clinton administration bears a serious part of the responsibility for this change. It abandoned the previous XTC American role of impartial arbitrator between Jews and Arabs.

JERUSALEM -- When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed off on the deal to withdraw Israeli forces from Hebron last week, he became the first leader of the Likud bloc ever to give away a piece of Eretz Israel -- the biblical Land of Israel.He departed from the fundamental principle of his wing of Zionism: land for peace -- up to a point; biblical Judea and Samaria -- not an inch. For this he was reviled by some of his own staunchest constituents and applauded by the other side.

JERUSALEM -- Benjamin Netanyahu leaves today for his first visit to the United States as prime minister of Israel, his government in disarray and his plans for the Mideast peace effort still unclear, but determined to win over the country where he was raised and educated.Netanyahu has made no secret of the importance he places on this trip, his first foreign foray since he was elected May 29. He is clearly eager to win the approval of the Clinton administration, which actively opposed him in the election and remains skeptical about his intentions toward the Arabs.

JERUSALEM -- Twelve years ago a glib young man with a flair for quotable slogans was appointed Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, just as Shimon Peres began his first term as prime minister.Benjamin Netanyahu now is poised to try to end the longtime ambitions of Mr. Peres by wresting from him the post of premier.A major public opinion poll Friday showed Mr. Netanyahu, leader of the opposition Likud bloc, three percentage points ahead of Mr. Peres in the wake of the series of suicide bombings that killed 60 people in Israel.

THE INTENSE international interest received by the election of Benjamin Netanyahu threatens to obscure and divert attention from a critical situation in the Palestinian territories whose amelioration cannot be postponed for some later time.A slower and more deliberate Israeli approach is not necessarily fatal to the ultimate success of such outstanding issues in the peace process as the Israeli-Syrian-Lebanese negotiations, further steps toward normalization with other Arab countries and even the beginning of the final status talks with the Palestinians.

PRESIDENT CLINTON didn't like it. The liberal media in America and around the world didn't like it. Even George Bush's onetime secretary of state, Jim Baker, didn't like it.It must be good: the election of Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister of Israel. Netanyahu won by the slimmest of margins over incumbent Israeli leader Shimon Peres, but he won. His victory is the best that could have happened, for Israel and for the world.But you wouldn't know that if you formed your opinions on the basis of the malarkey emanating from the White House and the liberal media.

JERUSALEM -On Wednesday, President Barack Obama called Israeli President Shimon Peres to congratulate him on the general elections held here the day before. The White House quoted President Obama's remark to President Peres that "the Israeli people should be very happy about the democratic example they have set for the world." The White House went on to tell us that the two men "had a good discussion." Ah, but how did the discussion proceed? Here is my best guess: "Mr. President, let me congratulate you on the general elections held in your country."

JERUSALEM - Benjamin Netanyahu plunged into the race for Israeli prime minister last night, offering to lead the right wing back to power and challenging parliament to remove technical barriers to his candidacy. The former prime minister announced his return to politics in a prime-time, televised news conference that set in motion a frantic legal and political scramble with high stakes for the whole region. "I present my candidacy today for prime minister and head of the Likud party," Netanyahu declared.

WASHINGTON - George W. Bush accused the Clinton administration yesterday of interfering in Israel's internal affairs, charging the White House with backing Ehud Barak over Benjamin Netanyahu in Israeli elections last year. "In recent times, Washington has tried to make Israel conform to its own plans and timetables," the likely Republican presidential nominee told a powerful pro-Israel lobbying organization. "A clear and bad example was the administration's attempt to take sides in the most recent Israeli election.

JERUSALEM -- Completing a seven-month investigation, Israeli police recommended yesterday that former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, be tried on corruption charges. A conviction could doom any chance of a political comeback for the one-time star of the right-wing Likud bloc, who left public life after soundly losing his bid for re-election last year to Ehud Barak. Police urged that the former prime minister be formally charged with taking a bribe, fraud, breach of trust and obstruction of justice.

BENJAMIN Netanyahu is leaving Israeli politics as stormily as he entered. His departure from the Knesset, as well as from the leadership of Likud, gives that party a chance to recover from its election disaster. Much remains to argue about in coming months, but Mr. Netanyahu won't be the issue.No politician is washed up at 49, though.Mr. Netanyahu won't be far away. If events sour under the prime ministry of Ehud Barak, with security compromised or terrorism renewed, Mr. Netanyahu will retain told-you-so appeal.

THE Israeli elections produced a strong personal mandate for Ehud Barak as prime minister -- and a stinging rejection of the policies and machinations of Benjamin Netanyahu -- but they settled none of the divisions in Israeli society and may even have exacerbated a few.Mr. Barak has no easy tasks ahead of him in working up the unity he wishes for within Israel or in carrying out what he hopes will be the end game in the Middle East peace process. There are forces within and outside the country committed to make each challenge difficult, and impossible if they can.Mr.

PARIS -- In little more than a year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has changed from a secular combat to a religious war. A secular conflict is negotiable. A religious conflict is not, since the claims made by both sides have to do with eschatology and destiny. You cannot compromise when what you are struggling for is the expression of God's will.The Clinton administration bears a serious part of the responsibility for this change. It abandoned the previous XTC American role of impartial arbitrator between Jews and Arabs.

JERUSALEM -- When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed off on the deal to withdraw Israeli forces from Hebron last week, he became the first leader of the Likud bloc ever to give away a piece of Eretz Israel -- the biblical Land of Israel.He departed from the fundamental principle of his wing of Zionism: land for peace -- up to a point; biblical Judea and Samaria -- not an inch. For this he was reviled by some of his own staunchest constituents and applauded by the other side.

JERUSALEM -- When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed off on the deal to withdraw Israeli forces from Hebron last week, he became the first leader of the Likud bloc ever to give away a piece of Eretz Israel -- the biblical Land of Israel.He departed from the fundamental principle of his wing of Zionism: land for peace -- up to a point; biblical Judea and Samaria -- not an inch. For this he was reviled by some of his own staunchest constituents and applauded by the other side.

JERUSALEM -- Benjamin Netanyahu leaves today for his first visit to the United States as prime minister of Israel, his government in disarray and his plans for the Mideast peace effort still unclear, but determined to win over the country where he was raised and educated.Netanyahu has made no secret of the importance he places on this trip, his first foreign foray since he was elected May 29. He is clearly eager to win the approval of the Clinton administration, which actively opposed him in the election and remains skeptical about his intentions toward the Arabs.