Theodorakis has spoken out against the Iraq and Israel's occupation of Gaza and the West Bank has blasted Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou for establishing closer relations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was guilty, he said, of " war crimes in Lebanon and Gaza.

" Under Netanyahu, Likud has and is likely to maintain a comparatively fiscally conservative economic stance, although it might be considered centrist or even progressive from a world view.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that it was " a sad day for Israel ", but that the verdict shows that in Israel " all are equal before the law, and that every woman has exclusive rights to her body.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has voiced particularly strong support for Pollard, visiting the convicted spy in prison in 2002.

Riots broke out following the opening of an exit in the Arab Quarter for the Western Wall Tunnel on the instructions of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which prior Prime Minister Shimon Peres had instructed to be put on hold for the sake of peace ( stating it has waited for over 1000 years, it could wait a few more ).

He attempted to run for a slot on the party's Knesset list, but encountered severe opposition from Netanyahu, who delayed party elections and advocated making changes to its charter to bar " anyone who has served three or more months in prison " from running as a Likud MK.

Since 2009, the Obama administration has repeatedly pressured the Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to freeze the growth of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and reignite the peace process between Israel and the Palestinian people.

The current president of the JCPA is former Israeli ambassador Dore Gold who has represented Israel in several diplomatic posts and served as adviser to prime ministers Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked President Bill Clinton to release Jonathan Pollard, an American naval intelligence officer who has been serving a life sentence since 1985 for giving classified information to Israel.

She has interviewed many high-profile figures including Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy US Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Pentagon adviser Richard Perle, Rwanda's President Paul Kagame and Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

He has continued to consult in Israeli elections, working for Ariel Sharon, Benjamin Netanyahu and most recently Avigdor Lieberman.

The incident has been deplored by many organizations and government officials, such as the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and President Shimon Peres.

In June 2009 Netanyahu outlined his conditions for the eventual creation of a Palestinian state, including the state being demilitarized, without an army or control of their airspace.

Netanyahu, who was elected as the new leader of Likud after Kadima's creation, and Silvan Shalom, the runner-up, both supported the disengagement plan, however Netanyahu resigned his ministerial post before the plan was executed.

* 1998 – Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat reach a " land for peace " agreement.

Despite the Israel-PLO accord, Netanyahu opposed the idea of Palestinian statehood.

Due partly to his own politics ( Barak was from the leftist Labor Party, whereas Netanyahu was from the rightist Likud Party ) and partly due to insistence for compromise by President Clinton, Barak offered Arafat a Palestinian state in 73 % of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip.

He responded that the Palestinian Fatah-backed government could deal with Israel, in the same way that it was possible for the Israeli government to make peace with Fatah over the objections of the former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, similarly to Hamas opposed a two-state deal.

His 11th-hour intervention in January 1997 is said to have brought Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to an agreement on the long-awaited withdrawal of Israeli troops from most of the West Bank town of Hebron.

Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, in his " National Security " platform, neither endorsed nor ruled out the idea of a Palestinian state.

Later, as Prime Minister, Netanyahu restated Likud's position of opposing Palestinian statehood, which after the Oslo Accords was largely accepted by the opposition Labor Party, even though the shape of any such state was not clear.

In June 2012, on the third anniversary of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’ s speech at Bar-Ilan University, Lauder published a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers in which he called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to return to the negotiating table.

On June 14, 2009, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech at Bar Ilan University endorsing the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River, a first in his career.

In 1996, increasing Israeli doubts about the peace process, led to Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud Party winning the election, mainly due to his promise to use a more rigid line in the negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.

In January 1997 Netanyahu signed the Hebron Protocol with the Palestinian Authority, resulting in the redeployment of Israeli forces in Hebron and the turnover of civilian authority in much of the area to the Palestinian Authority.

On June 14, ten days after Obama's Cairo speech, Netanyahu gave a speech at Bar-Ilan University in which he endorsed, for the first time, a " Demilitarized Palestinian State ", after two months of refusing to commit to anything other than a self-ruling autonomy when coming into office.

Netanyahu stated that he would accept a Palestinian state if Jerusalem were to remain the united capital of Israel, the Palestinians would have no army, and the Palestinians would give up their demand for a right of return.

After a prisoner exchange deal was agreed upon in 2011 under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Olmert's successor, Palestinian officials demanded that Netanyahu live up to Olmert's promise and release Fatah prisoners.

As the Foreign Policy Adviser under Netanyahu after the 1996 elections, Gold worked with the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Jordan and others in the Arab world.

Newly elected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a new policy following the many suicide attacks by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad since 1993, including a wave of suicide attacks prior to the Israeli elections of May 1996.

Netanyahu declared a tit-for-tat policy which he termed " reciprocity ," whereby Israel would not engage in the peace process if Arafat continued with what Netanyahu defined as the Palestinian revolving door policy, i. e., incitement and direct or indirect support of terrorism.

For example, in both September and November 2010, Ross was said to have tried to persuade Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to freeze settlement construction during negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, in exchange for unspecified private assurances and a major military arms transfer from the United States.

Lieberman's actions were motivated by the concessions granted by his former boss, Benjamin Netanyahu ( when he was director-general of the Likud ) to the Palestinian Authority in the 1997 Wye River Memorandum, featuring the division of the West Bank city of Hebron.

Netanyahu also repeatedly called on the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

However, on October 18, current prime minister Netanyahu ordered Justice minister Ya ' akov Ne ' eman to extend Cabinet-level debate on the bill in order to add amendments which make the loyalty oath universal to both Jewish and non-Jewish citizens of the state, including Jewish immigrants who seek citizenship.

Netanyahu replied to Abbas ' April letter less than a week later and, for the first time, officially recognised the right for Palestinians to have their own state, though as before he declared it would have to be demilitarised, and said his new national unity government furnished a new opportunity to renew negotiations and move forward.

Since Rabin first took office, there have been four other sabra Prime Ministers: the current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is the first and ( so far ) only sabra Prime Minister to have been born in the modern state since Israel's declaration of independence in 1948 ; he first took office in 1996, before leaving office in 1999 and returning in 2009.

In April 2012, Mahmoud Abbas sent a letter to Benjamin Netanyahu reiterating that for peace talks to resume, Israel must stop settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and accept the 1967 borders as a basis for a two-state solution.

After Barak's move, Netanyahu was able to maintain a majority of 66 MK ( out of 120 in the Knesset ), previously having 74 MKs within his majority coalition.

In rejecting President Obama's call for a settlement freeze Netanyahu also claimed that settlement expansion, so called " natural growth ", was needed to allow settlers to raise families by moving to new larger houses rather than move to existing houses either elsewhere in the Occupied Territories or in Israel itself.

In his announcement Netanyahu called the move " a painful step that will encourage the peace process " and urged the Palestinians to respond.