DEPARTING THE WEST:

Abe Foxman, the past Anti-Defamation League leader who long has said that nothing could separate him from support for Israel, now says the leaders of an extreme party could do the trick if they get their way in coalition talks with incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"I never thought that I would reach that point where I would say that my support of Israel is conditional," Foxman said in an interview published Friday by The Jerusalem Post. "I've always said that [my support of Israel] is unconditional, but it's conditional. I don't think that it's a horrific condition to say: 'I love Israel and I want to love Israel as a Jewish and democratic state that respects pluralism.'"

"If Israel ceases to be an open democracy, I won't be able to support it," he said.

Roughly six in 10 Israelis are concerned about the future of Israeli democracy, according to a poll released Friday as prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu moved closer to finalizing his next government with a series of hardline Orthodox parties.

Sixty-one percent of respondents to a Channel 12 survey said they're worried about the future of Israeli democracy, while 35% said they were not.

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