Itongadol.- Yisrael Beytenu Avigdor Liberman is now Foreign Minister, after he was sworn in to the position in the Knesset Monday, less than a week after his acquittal from fraud and breach of trust charges.
"I missed him in the government," Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said of Liberman in a Likud Beytenu faction meeting that afternoon. "We have a lot to work on, great trials and challenges. It\’s important for us to work together."
Liberman gave up his position as Foreign Minister, which he held from April 2009 to the end of December 2012, after his indictment in the Belarus Ambassador Affair, and was cleared of all charges by the Jerusalem Magistrate\’s Court last Wednesday.
Ahead of the vote to allow Liberman to become a minister, which passed with 62 in favor and 17 opposed, opposition MKs voiced opposition to the appointment.
"Liberman is an explosive that will blow up under the wheels of the peace process," Meretz leader Zehava Gal-On said. "Liberman is a persona non grata around the world and brought the deterioration of our foreign relations, turning us into a leper state."
According to Labor leadership candidate MK Isaac Herzog, "Liberman was the worst foreign minister in Israel\’s history. I don\’t understand why he\’s being brought back."