Lally Weymouth (Continuación)

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One of Israel’s new political stars is a successful businessman turned politician — Naftali Bennett, 41, whose party, Habayit Hayehudi (the Jewish Home), won 12 seats in parliament in the last election, making him a key cabinet member. Some Israelis describe Bennett as extreme — he admits he wants to annex parts of the West Bank. Others, including many young Israelis, subscribe to his views. This past week, he spoke at length to The Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth in his office in Jerusalem. Excerpts:

Several years ago, you started and sold a high-tech company.

Yes, I founded and sold a company, Cyota, for $145 million.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with The Post’s Lally Weymouth on Thursday in Jerusalem about how he sees the situation in Israel and the surrounding countries. Excerpts:

Q: You said this week that Israel would not accept anything less than the total cessation of all enrichment of nuclear materials by Iran. You also called for the removal from Iran of all enriched nuclear materials. You then went on and laid down quite a few conditions. Are your conditions greater than before, and do you have a timetable for military action against Iran?

A: These aren’t my conditions. They are the demands of the U.N.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Yair Lapid , 49, a former television anchor and journalist, is a rising political star in Israel. He surprised Israelis in the recent election when his new party, Yesh Atid, became the country’s second largest. His voters were secular young people and the middle class; their focus was not Iran but domestic affairs. Now the finance minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, Lapid spoke with The Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth this past week in Jerusalem. Excerpts:

How have people responded to your budget?

When I introduced my economic plan for the first time, people had mixed views because it’s the largest cut in the history of Israeli budgets.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Emad Abdel Ghafour is a key aide to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and the leader of a new Salafist party called Watan. He sat down with Washington Post senior associate editor Lally Weymouth at a World Economic Forum conference this past week to explain his views on Egypt’s future — including its relations with Iran, parliamentary elections and the possibility of imposing sharia law. Excerpts:

You were a member of Egypt’s Salafist Nour Party. Recently, you broke off and founded the Watan Party. Could you explain why you broke away from Nour and what Watan stands for?

I am the founder of the Nour Party, and I was the main [force pushing] the Salafists to enter politics.…  Seguir leyendo »

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The Post’s Lally Weymouth met with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh last week in Amman, where he spoke with optimism about a possible breakthrough in Syria and the impact of the conflict in the neighboring country. Excerpts:

Q: How do you see the situation in Syria?

A: We had the meeting of what we call the London Eleven — an offshoot of the Friends of Syria. It was a good meeting. We have had a series of such meetings — this one was in Amman in May. In between meetings, there was this major development — the Russian and American understanding that we are now going to [have] an international conference, the purpose of which is to implement Geneva I.…  Seguir leyendo »

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President Obama presented the Medal of Freedom to Israeli President Shimon Peres at a dinner at the White House on Wednesday. The last surviving founder of the state of Israel, Peres went on to serve as prime minister and leader of the Labor Party, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for his role in the Oslo Accords, the first Israeli agreement with the Palestinians. The morning after the White House dinner, Peres sat down with The Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth at Blair House to discuss Syria, Iran and U.S. presidents from Kennedy to Obama. Excerpts:

What is your view on Syria right now?…  Seguir leyendo »

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Viktor Orban, prime minister of Hungary, was once a leftist freedom fighter against the Soviets. But in 1994, he took a turn to the right and never looked back. As head of the Fidesz party, he has governed since 2010 with a two-thirds majority in the parliament. Last week, in his first interview with an American journalist, he tried to explain to The Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth why his critics are wrong in claiming that he is creating an autocratic, centralized state. Excerpts:

Your president, Pál Schmitt, resigned this week [amid charges that he plagiarized his doctoral dissertation].

The [president is] . …  Seguir leyendo »

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Colombia's new president, Juan Manuel Santos, surprised many by reaching out to Venezuela's Hugo Chávez after coming to office in August. He discusses the FARC, Venezuela and his country's future with The Post's Lally Weymouth. Excerpts:

Q. How will your presidency differ from that of your predecessor, President Álvaro Uribe?

A. When Uribe came into power, circumstances forced him to concentrate on security issues. He launched a very successful program called "democratic security" -- security for every Colombian within the law and the constitution. In the last eight years, this has transformed the country. I come into power with a different set of circumstances .…  Seguir leyendo »

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Turkish President Abdullah Gul, who led his nation's delegation to the U.N. General Assembly this week, sat down with The Post's Lally Weymouth to discuss Turkey's relations with the United States, Israel and Iran. Excerpts:

Q. In June, Turkey voted against the U.S.-sponsored U.N. sanctions [against Iran]. . . . Wasn't this a break in relations between Turkey and the West?

A. We are a NATO member and we are against nuclear weapons in our region. We believe the solution must come through diplomatic channels and diplomatic means. If there is a war in the region, that will affect us as, for example, the war in Iraq has affected us.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Last week Roza Otunbayeva led a group in Kyrgyzstan that ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev from power after protesters stormed the president's offices; at least 84 people were killed. Newsweek-Washington Post's Lally Weymouth reached Otunbayeva by phone to discuss the current situation. Excerpts:

What actually caused the outbreak of violence last week?

A number of reasons. There was a lot of corruption, and then in terms of transparency, Kyrgyzstan is 166th out of 180 countries. We are a country with such a low quality of life. But since January 1, President Bakiyev and his government started to raise the price for utilities -- for electricity, for hot water, for mobile companies, for water for agricultural needs, [and his government also increased] taxes on real estate.…  Seguir leyendo »

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In Israel, the office of the president is meant to be ceremonial. But at 86, President Shimon Peres, the last founder of the Jewish state to remain active in Israeli politics and a frequent counselor to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, hardly stays on the sidelines. Although Israelis are feeling pressured by a recent U.N. report, led by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, accusing the army of war crimes during the recent operation against Hamas -- as well as by Iran's nuclear ambitions and by the perception that the Obama administration is hostile to them -- Peres reached out last week, holding a conference in Jerusalem with international leaders in which he called on Netanyahu to move the peace process forward.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Lally Weymouth of Newsweek and The Post interviewed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. Excerpts:

Q. What did you think of the Goldstone report?

A. I thought there were limits to hypocrisy but I was obviously wrong. The so-called human rights commission accuses Israel that legitimately defended itself against Hamas of war crimes. Mind you, Hamas . . . committed four. First, they called for the destruction of Israel, which under the U.N. Charter is considered a war crime -- incitement to genocide; secondly, they fired deliberately on civilians; third, they hid behind civilians; and fourth, they've been holding our captured soldier, Gilad Shalit, without access to the Red Cross, for three years.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Lally Weymouth of The Post and Newsweek interviewed British Foreign Secretary David Miliband this week. Excerpts:

Q. The thing that is on everybody's mind here is the release of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the Libyan found guilty of the Lockerbie bombing. How could you have released him?

A. It was a decision by the Scottish authorities according to the criminal justice laws of Scotland.

Did you oppose the decision?

It wasn't for us to interfere. We did not oppose it.

Why not?

Under our criminal justice system, this is a devolved matter according to the law of Britain. The law of Britain gives power over criminal justice issues that relate to Scotland to the Scottish government.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told Newsweek-The Post's Lally Weymouth that the conflict in Gaza is not a fight of Israelis against Palestinians but a case in which Israel represents moderates in the region, including the Palestinian Authority. Excerpts:

Q. How do you respond to the pressure for a cease-fire from the international community?

A. I don't like the term cease-fire since it looks like an agreement between two legitimate sides. At the end of the day, this is not a conflict between two states but a fight against terror. . . . We need to fight in Gaza because they [Hamas] have targeted Israel for eight years.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Q. Is there a realistic chance of peace with the Palestinians?

A. I think we have to follow a two-track approach: one political, the other economic. I think the economic locomotive has achieved much more than the military since the Second World War. And I think that we have unbelievable economic proposals as to how to make accommodations between us and our neighbors. In the political negotiations, the gaps are not very great, but they are highly emotional. It will be extremely difficult to put them on paper because each party looks to its own audience and will be very careful not to appear as losers.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Q. Did you [think] it was possible to do anything with [Yasser] Arafat?

A. There is hardly anything I did here that was easy. Changing the way business is done in finance in the PA was not easy. You just didn't know where to begin.

Was it possible to do anything with the PA?

Yes, it was. This is fairly well documented. We did quite a few things in a relatively short period of time.

So what did you decide to do?

I knew what was wrong with the system. I wanted to get the basics right. And that's what I focused on.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Newsweek-The Post's Lally Weymouth interviewed Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Davos, Switzerland, this week. Excerpts:

Q. You were critical of the latest National Intelligence Estimate on Iran.

A. Our interpretation is that clearly the Iranians are aiming at nuclear capability. It's probably true that . . . they may have slowed down the weapons group in 2003, because it was the height of American militarism. . . . We think that they are quite advanced, much beyond the level of the Manhattan Project. We suspect they are probably already working on warheads for ground-to-ground missiles . . . [and] that probably they have another clandestine enrichment operation beyond the one in Natanz.…  Seguir leyendo »

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When Benazir Bhutto returned from exile in October, she was disturbed by the growing strength of the Taliban and Islamic extremists inside Pakistan. Last week she sat down with Newsweek-The Post's Lally Weymouth in Islamabad. Excerpts:

Q: How do see your prospects in the upcoming election?

A: We all worried that the elections are going to be rigged in favor of the ruling party -- the military's party, the Muslim League. . . . There are 148 seats in the Punjab, the government has been told to give 108 seats [to] them. That means we'll only be fighting over 40 seats.…  Seguir leyendo »