Gees Rocket, I got all enthused to read about this new unity govt. 

only to find there's nothing new. It is the same old troubles....

So it was not elections. When is that coming. Look at Europe, hopefuly Israelis have had enough of Netenyahu. For their sake and ours we need somebody with some morals.

Another view of the new Israeli coalition government. (And I am not just posting it because it agrees with me - although that helps)

Netanyahu’s ‘big bang’: A preliminary analysis

Israel may finally have gotten the political “big bang” that voters thought they were getting during the elections three years ago. The agreement bringing the centrist and pragmatic Kadima party into a wider government coalition, under Netanyahu’s leadership, creates the stable and broad political base necessary for tackling Israel’s major challenges. The ideological fringes and interest groups on all sides are isolated, and their artificial political power, resulting from the ability to bring down narrow coalitions, has been deflated.

While a totally fresh start in the complex Israeli political system is unrealistic, the new coalition, based on a wide Zionist consensus, provides unprecedented opportunities for addressing and perhaps even fixing many of the dysfunctional components. The agenda items for this new government provide more than enough urgent issues to fill the 18 months until elections must be held. Even prioritizing them will not be easy. And governing with a coalition of 94 Knesset members (more that three-quarters of the total) has some significant limitations.''

. . .

On the complex issues of borders, settlements and negotiations with the Palestinians, the new government can belatedly confront the violent fringe that has sought to impose its views. The pragmatic consensus that supports a stable peace, if possible, and recognizes the costs to Israel of unending occupation and responsibility for millions of Palestinian Arabs, can reassert its voice.

This does not mean a return to the vulnerability of the 1949 cease-fire lines, or destruction of communities built in good faith across that “green line.” But now, the government has the credibility to pursue negotiations for a two-state framework based on compromise. If Israelis see a basis for stable agreement, including an end to invented Palestinian histories and efforts to flood Israel with millions of third-generation “refugees,” the majority will accept the costs. And if such negotiations reach another dead end, a broad-based Israeli government can move toward implementing the consensus approach to borders and leave the Palestinians to decide how to govern themselves.
. . .

Finally, the fact that this political maneuver took most Israeli pundits by surprise demonstrates the degree to which Netanyahu’s strategic and political skills are underestimated and misrepresented. Ideological and personal factors have blinded analysts and foreign political leaders, including heads of state, to the caution and deliberation with which Netanyahu has governed in the past three years. There are also important lessons to be learned from this dimension.

Overall, the consensus-based governing coalition is the right move at the right time. But despite having come close to the long-overdue “big bang” before, only to be disappointed by the fizzle, the renewed optimism is justified.

full artilce:
blogs.timesofisrael.com/netanyahus-big-b...

Thanks Habesor for the info.

It is informantive but still confusing for the foreigners especialy with the names we've never heard before. I assume they are 'Hebrew' names (of different parties)?

Rocket,

I really don't want to pour cold water on your hopes but no matter what Bibi writes in his letter, Abbas will find a reason not to negotiate or if bludgeoned into negotiations, not to agree. As long as the Hamas and Fatah are at each others throats, Abbas is stuck in place as far as a peace agreement with Israel is concerned.

Habesor

Habesor

You didn't dash my hopes, the PLO/PA/Hamas/Hezbollah/PFLA/etc... entity is quite capable of doing that all by itself.

Alas, the Arab Palestinians are missing yet another opportunity to get what they say they want (which is not exactly what they do want), here is the response . . .

PLO: Netanyahu letter on peace a non-starter

. . .

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian officials on Sunday rejected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's formal response to a letter from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, saying his positions on Palestinian grievances over frozen peace negotiations contain nothing that could revive the talks.

Netanyahu's Saturday reply to last month's letter from Abbas rejected demands to halt Jewish settlement building in occupied territories and repeated a call for an unconditional return to talks that collapsed in 2010, according to the officials.

. . .

Few diplomats, however, expect any breakthrough ahead of the US presidential election in November, although the surprise formation of a national unity government in Israel last week has provided a slight flicker of hope.
. . .

full article:
www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Artic...

Personally, I think that if the only thing stopping talks is a demand for a "construction freeze" (which it isn't but that is another story) then Israel should agree to and demand a complete construction freeze in all disputed areas. A total freeze! Israel should demand loudly that nothing, not even pitching a tent should be allowed by anyone on either side in the territories. Such a position gives the Arab Palestinians what they are asking for and makes it fair to both parties. I wonder why Bibi hasn't thought of it. :-)  Who knows maybe that was what was in the letter.   

I am still ever hopeful that someone will be able to explain to Abu Mazen that the prospects for the creation of another Arab Palestinian State get dimmer by the day and that the result will not be the Arab Palestinian idea (touted loudly here and other places) of a One State Solution a.k.a. no Israel.