Yisrael Beiteinu

Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) is a right-wing party established in 1999 by Avigdor Lieberman, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union and at one time the director of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office. The party became the fifth-largest parliamentary faction following the 2006 general elections, with more than half of Israel's Russian immigrants voting for it. The party's two core principles are encouraging socioeconomic opportunities for new immigrants and taking a hard line in peace negotiations with the Palestinians and Arab states.

Yisrael Beiteinu is in favor of a peace settlement with the Palestinians but advocates replacing the land-for-peace approach with a mutual exchange of territories and populations under the principle of peace for peace, land for land. The party's manifesto states that "The end result [of a peace settlement with the Palestinians] must not be a state and a half for Palestinians and half a state for the Jews… It would be unjustifiable to create a Palestinian state that would exclude Jews while Israel became a bi-national state with an Arab minority of more than 20 percent of its citizens." The party states that Jerusalem must remain the undivided capital of Israel.

Yisrael Beiteinu supports the advancement of free-market economic policies and favors financial incentives, tax discounts and the reduction of bureaucracy, along with governmental assistance in the setting up of factories and research-and-development programs to attract foreign investment.

Regarding religious issues in Israel, the party does not call for the separation of religion and state. Yisrael Beiteinu's manifesto states that the party will "strive to establish a modern society based on Jewish tradition and Zionism – a society that respects the religious and halakhic aspects of Jewish life and is also tolerant of different religious outlooks."

Lieberman was minister of strategic affairs in Olmert's coalition government until Yisrael Beiteinu withdrew in January 2008, in protest against what the party viewed as unacceptable concessions to the Palestinian Authority. Following the party's withdrawal from government, news sources reported that Lieberman was under ongoing investigation for allegedly receiving a bribe from Jericho's Oasis Casino financier, Austrian-Jewish businessman Martin Schlaff.

Source: Arutz Sheva.

The Israel Project.

Jerusalem Post.