On-Site Team Building: When Time Gets Cut to the Bare Minimum ...

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Anne Thornley-Brown, M.B.A. @executiveoasis

With the trend towards shorter and shorter?time frames? it can be challenging to keep team building upbeat and interactive and yet retain the essential ingredients for effective team building.?I have previously blogged about one day team building pitfalls and ?how team building participants are getting shortchanged in the push for shorter team building.?Despite all the cautions, the trend towards short timeframes is clearly not going to disappear any time soon.

While I consider the following formats to be?far from ideal, here are 2 formats for effective team building when a longer session just isn?t possible.

Short Team Building Formats

Business Issue Focus:

• 15 Minutes:?Session starter Exercise (upon arrival or right after lunch to identify key issues for the session (in pairs and trios)
• 15 minutes:?CEO briefing to convey relevance to organizational issues and challenges
• 30 minutes:?Team Briefing by Facilitator to provide overview and zero in on key issues
• 30 Minutes:?Instructions for short simulation, game or board game, time for teams to confer and ask questions
• 1 Hour:?Short Brainstorming Exercise Focusing on Issues Identified During Session starter.
  Here are some ideas for brainstorming?6 Brainstorming Tools.
• 15 Minutes:?Break
• 30 Minutes:?Debriefing Questions in Teams
• 15 Minutes:?Mini-Presentations of Results from Team Exercise.
• 30 Minutes:?Debriefing.?Use an upbeat method for debriefing.?See my Cvent Blog post with?5 Way to Debrief (Without Boring?Participants)
• 15 Minutes:?Wrap up and Next Steps

Total: 4 Hours 15 Minutes

What?s missing is any type of business simulation or recreational activity to promote team bonding. The facilitator has to work extra hard to engage participants and retain any element of the fun factor. ?Here are some tips to get the most out of short, on-site team building:

6 Tips for Short Business Issue Focused Team Building

1. Selecti a theme that parallels and reflects the core issue(s) the organization is confronting.
2. Reinforce your theme through props, visuals, menu items for break, and background music and videos
3. Use one very vivid vehicle to present your content during the team briefing (e.g. a skit, short and targeted game). Take a look at my Cvent Blog feature with highlights from The Fresh Conference for a video with a?powerful skit?about dissecting the meeting formats that was used to kick of the team exercise.
4. Select a unique setting for the team exercise (e.g. outdoors, verandah, shisha tent in the parking lot, patio, gazebos).
5. Create a visual and tactile interface for the team exercise. (e.g. giant index cards or post-its, butcher block paper covering tables, game boards).
6. Get groups to use a creative method to report back about their findings (e.g. collages, storyboards, TV commercials, infographics, Pinterest Boards).

To buy yourself more time, begin with an early lunch (i.e. 11:30). Get creative and experiment with?interactive working lunch formats?that reinforce your theme. This will ensure that everyone is present for the start of your session.

To ensure that you session finishes by 4:30. Schedule the CEO briefing for the last 15 minutes of lunch. Be sure to serve his or her table first so that they are finished eating in time to present.

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Short Business Simulation Format:

• Snack 10:00 Start time of session.?
• 15 Minutes:?10:15?Session starter Exercise (upon arrival or right after lunch to identify key issues for the session (in pairs and trios)
• 15 minutes:?10:30?CEO briefing to convey relevance to organizational issues and challenges
• 30 minutes:?10:45?Team Briefing by Facilitator to provide overview and zero in on key issues
• 15 Minutes?11:15?? Instructions for simulation, game or activity. (Games or activities must be set up in advance to save time.)
• 45 Minutes:?11:30?Serve Working Lunch?with interactive format?Over Lunchtime for teams to confer.
• 15 Minutes: Question period in last 15 minutes when participants are finishing lunch.
• 2 ?3/4 Hours:?12:15?Game, board game or short simulation ? Some teams may not finish. Be prepared for critical feedback.
• 15 Minutes:?3:00?Break
• 30 Minutes:?3:15?Debriefing Questions in Teams??(include questions about possible business applications).
• 30 Minutes:?3:45?Debriefing
• 15 Minutes:?4:15?Wrap up and Next Steps

Total: 6 1/2 Hours including lunch

To buy yourself more time, begin with a mid morning break ?(i.e. 10:00) and start your session at 10:30. This will ensure that everyone is present for the CEO briefing.

To ensure that you session finishes by 4:30. Schedule the CEO briefing for the last 15 minutes of lunch. Be sure to serve his or her table first so that they are finished eating in time to present.

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Now that you have sampled our innovative team building approaches through this blog, we hope that you will keep Executive Oasis International in mind the next time your company requires team building, an executive retreat or on-site consulting to boost the effectiveness of your teams.

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Filed under: Business Simulations, Business Team Building, Corporate Team Building, On-site Team Building, Short Team Building, Team Building Tagged: | business team building, On-site Team Building, Short Team Building, Team Building Tips

Source: http://corporateteambuilding.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/on-site-team-building/

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January 21, 2013 in MLM

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Battling With Forex Trading? Read through These Guidelines ...

It is true in the industry community that there are some possibilities which can be better than other folks. Forex symbolizes the largest currency trading industry on the planet. Please read on for many approaches to improve your Forex profits.All forex investors have to create the skill and emotionally charged discipline to learn when it?s time to exit an unprofitable industry, and also do it. It can be only unskilled investors who observe the marketplace transform unfavorable and attempt to journey their placements out as an alternative to reducing their deficits. This type of wishful considering is just not seem method.Don?t pay for a bot to trade for you personally, or possibly a book declaring to have all of the secrets on obtaining abundant off of forex currency trading. The majority of the time, these goods have in no way been proven to create any individual reliable money an extended-expression basis. Really the only versions making money off of these products are the type who market them. If you would like get more out from Currency trading you can devote your hard earned dollars much more smartly when you get a pro Fx trader. Matt Lloyd

Should you be seriously interested in making an investment in Forex, you have to discover all you can about something named Fibonacci amounts. Fibonacci amounts are fantastic resources which provide the user with calculations that can help offer you further knowledge on the best time to industry and once to keep away. Fibonacci amounts could even be accustomed to established your end boundaries.

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You must shield against weaknesses of character, like avarice, when trading in the Forex market. Concentrate alternatively on enjoying to the strong points and focus on increasing them. Prior to you making any choices on going into a specific trade, assess regardless of if the details you may have available justifies setup. Enter the market place slowly and gradually and guardedly.

This handpicked choice of tips and tricks comes from productive investors who may have exposure to forex currency trading. There is absolutely no guarantee that you will become a member of them in success with investing, but discovering and working with these guidelines and techniques will unquestionably allow you to remain a better chance. Make an effort to implement the information on this page, and you will earn some income when investing currency trading!

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Source: http://www.tradefinancebank.com/battling-with-forex-trading-read-through-these-guidelines/

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Federer's game too much for Tomic in Australia

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) ? The bravado he built by holding serve for 76 games dissolved in six points. It was Roger Federer on the other side of the net this time, in a major, and he gave 20-year-old Bernard Tomic an instant reality check ? a kind of 'Welcome to my place, Mate.'

"I elected to serve, considering I was serving really well the last few weeks," Tomic said. "Yeah ... that first service game was important. I lost it. Then I was like, 'Oh, no!'"

The last Aussie exited the Australian Open on Saturday night, with Federer beating Tomic 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-1 in the third round.

"It's not my favorite part of the job beating up on the hometown heroes," Federer told the crowd at Rod Laver Arena, where he has won four of his 17 Grand Slam titles. "But it's nice that you guys sort of invite me back every year."

Federer earned his 250th win at a Grand Slam event, the milestone sprinkled with some of his classic crisp volleys and trademark one-handed backhands. Federer won the first point of the match with a forehand winner, the first of three in that game, and Tomic only won two points before the Swiss star converted a service break in the first game.

Federer will face Canadian Milos Raonic, who had 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-4 win over Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber in a battle of two big servers.

Defending champion Victoria Azarenka struggled at times before putting away injured American Jamie Hampton 6-4, 4-6. 6-2 in 2 hours, 9 minutes. No. 3 Serena Williams dropped serve early in the second set before winning the last six games in her 6-1, 6-3 victory against Japan's Ayumi Morita.

Top-ranked Azarenka overcame an early break and fended off triple break point in the seventh game of the deciding set before clinching the match. Hampton needed a medical timeout for a lower back problem immediately before she served out the second set, and winced in pain throughout the latter half of the match.

"She took a medical timeout but she rips winners all over the place," Azarenka said. "I was like, 'Can I have a back problem?' I'm feeling great, but I'm missing every shot."

Azarenka next plays Elena Vesnina, who beat 16th-seeded Roberta Vinci of Italy 7-6 (4), 6-4.

Williams is aiming for a third consecutive Grand Slam title. She rocketed another serve at 128 mph, equaling a career best that she hit earlier in the tournament.

She later combined with older sister Venus to win a second-round doubles match, more preparation for her fourth-round singles match against No. 14 Maria Kirilenko, who beat No. 20 Yanina Wickmayer 7-6 (4), 6-3.

Former U.S. and French Open winner Svetlana Kuznetsova advanced 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 over Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro and will next play former No. 1-ranked Caroline Wozniacki, who had a 6-4, 6-3 win over Ukraine qualifier Lesia Tsurenko.

Sloane Stephens beat Laura Robson 7-5, 6-3 in a matchup between the only teenagers left in the women's draw. That set the 19-year-old Stephens on course for a fourth-round match against Serbia's Bojana Jovanovski, who ended the run of 42-year-old Kimko Date-Krumm in the third round.

Almost halfway through the season's first major, the only real upset was 2009 U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro's 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 3-6, 6-3 loss to Frenchman Jeremy Chardy on Saturday. His departure meant only three major winners remained in the draw, and they're collectively known as the "Big Three."

No. 3 Andy Murray, who broke a 76-year drought for British men at the majors with his win at the U.S. Open last year, advanced to the fourth round with a 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 win over Lithuanian qualifier Ricardas Berankis.

Top-ranked Novak Djokovic will be aiming for his 18th straight win at Melbourne Park when he lines up against No. 15 Stanislas Wawrinka on Sunday night. He is bidding to be the first man in the Open era to win three consecutive Australian titles.

The third round ended in the early hours of Sunday morning, when No. 14-seeded Gilles Simon outlasted fellow Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 1-6, 8-6 in a match that finished at 12:32 a.m.

Both men needed treatment from the trainer during the 4 hour, 43-minute match on Hisense Arena, with Simon struggling to shake off soreness in his elbow and Monfils fighting fatigue.

Tomic claimed his first ATP Tour title last week in Sydney, and beat top-ranked Novak Djokovic the previous week at the exhibition Hopman Cup international mixed team competition in Perth. But he remembered very quickly that playing Federer in a Grand Slam was another step up again.

The young Australian has had his ups and downs: qualifying for Wimbledon in 2011 and reaching the quarterfinals, reaching the fourth-round at the Australian Open and losing to Federer last year are the highlights; sliding down the rankings and being labeled 'Tomic the Tank Engine' after his second-round loss to Andy Roddick at the U.S. Open and sliding down the rankings from a career-high No. 27 in June to No. 52 in December were the low points.

But he'd been regaining momentum in the Australian swing, talking about making it into the top 10, maybe even to No. 1, as he built up for the Federer match.

Then the proceedings began, starting with the master of ceremonies reading through Federer's list of achievements for the 15,000-strong crowd.

"I got in there, I started to think after they mentioned all these Grand Slams leading up, Wimbledon champion six times, six times US Open champion," he recounted the moments, laughing. "Then I was, 'Oh ... it's Roger. I try to block out who's on the other side of the net, but couldn't quite do it after that announcement. "

Simon and Chardy were among the four Frenchman who advanced on Saturday.

Their compatriots, No. 7-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga ? who beat Slovenian Blaz Kavcic 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 ? No. 9 Richard Gasquet ? who ousted Croatia's Ivan Dodig 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-0 ? will meet in the next round.

On a mild, bright sunny day, the Australian Open attracted its record one-day crowd: 53,928 for the day session, and 26,807 at night.

Tomic had his share of supporters among them, with a group of girls lining up in order with red letters on their white singles spelling out A-T-O-M-I-C. Federer had his share of support, too, with the red-and-white Swiss flags fluttering and people chanting his name. According to Tomic, the 31-year-old Federer even has fans in the locker rooms.

"A lot of players, especially in the locker room, they idolize Roger," Tomic said. "He is the greatest our sport's ever had. You learn something every time you watch him. I learned something tonight as well. "

Tomic said he was satisfied with his start to 2013, and would be supporting for Federer for the rest of the tournament.

"I'm sure he has a good chance of winning," Tomic said. "Yeah, it's always a good feeling if you lose (only) to the champion."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/federers-game-too-much-tomic-australia-145832946--spt.html

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What do You Need? A Conversion Van or Class B Motorhome. | Van ...

At first glance, a conversion van and a Class B motor home may look very similar. Both are based on commercially produced vans manufactured by major automakers. However, the levels of modifications vary and the two classes of vehicles serve two separate purposes. A purchaser looking for the features of a conversion van would not be happy with a Class B motor home.

Conversion Vans

The conversion van starts with a basic commercially produced van and adds after-market accessories. Companies specializing in the conversion van market commonly add these accessories although some vans are still converted as do-it-yourself projects. Dealers often use the conversion van company name when marketing these vans.

A conversion travel van can include a raised roof sometimes known as a ?high top.? This makes it easier to move around within the van. Other features commonly added include luxury seating, entertainment centers including televisions and stereos, coolers or refrigerators and mood lighting. This type of conversion van makes long road trips more comfortable especially for larger groups. Some conversion vans offer comfortable seating for as many as eight people.

Conversion vans serve a number of specialized purposes along with offering road-trip comfort. Some conversion vans are equipped to provide access to people who utilize wheelchairs for mobility. These conversions commonly include lifts for wheelchairs and special brackets to hold the wheelchair stable during travel.

Some specially equipped conversion vans serve as mobile workplaces. These vans often include raised roofs to make it easier for workers to move about. Often the vans receive specialized upgrades specific to the workers using the vehicle. This can include cell phone and mobile computer connectivity for a salesman or satellite communications equipment for a remote television crew.

Class B Motor Homes

A Class B motor home utilizes the body of the van as the exterior of the vehicle. Almost all of Class B motorhomes feature a raised roof allowing the traveler to walk around within the vehicle. The rear portion of the van serves as the living quarters of the motor home and often features seating the folds out into a bed, a cooler or refrigerator, a dining table and entertainment items such as a television or stereo. Some Class B motor homes offer a toilet but few offer any shower facilities.

Class B motor homes offer the most economical camping experience for the recreational vehicle enthusiast. The vehicles can be used as a second vehicle by the family and can be parked in a normal garage or parking spot. Other advantages include better fuel economy than most recreational vehicles, an ease of driving not found in larger campers and a lower cost of acquisition.

This vehicle does have some limitations as a recreational vehicle. The Class B motor home offers comfortable camping for two people although some campers offer enough space for one or two children as well. The campers provide little storage space for the recreational items and camping supplies and are usually limited to short camping excursions.

Common Traits

Conversion vans and Class B motor homes are both commonly based upon full-sized vans. This makes the vehicles capable of towing trailers, if necessary. Dealers and maintenance shops associated with the van manufacturer can handle maintenance to the engine and drive train. Both versions of the van have become popular with people who ?tailgate? or picnic in the parking lots of sporting events because of the comfort and amenities they offer.

Source: http://www.vandepot.com/what-do-you-need-a-conversion-van-or-class-b-motorhome

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Israeli PM faces tough choice if re-elected

FILE - In this Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013 file photograph, a worker hangs a huge poster with an image of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu overlooking the Ayalon freeway in Tel Aviv, Israel. After a lackluster three-month campaign, there seems to be little doubt that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on his way to re-election. But the makeup of Netanyahu?s next government remains a matter of great uncertainty. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013 file photograph, a worker hangs a huge poster with an image of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu overlooking the Ayalon freeway in Tel Aviv, Israel. After a lackluster three-month campaign, there seems to be little doubt that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on his way to re-election. But the makeup of Netanyahu?s next government remains a matter of great uncertainty. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)

JERUSALEM (AP) ? After a lackluster three-month campaign, few doubt that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on his way to re-election. But the makeup of Netanyahu's next government remains a mystery.

If re-elected on Tuesday, Netanyahu will face a critical decision that will define his term.

He can form a majority coalition with the hard-line and religious parties he often calls his natural partners ? or reach across the aisle and try to bring centrist parties into a broader-based government that might be more amenable to pursuing peace and ending, at least partly, the occupation of the West Bank and other territories.

His decision will have deep implications.

A narrow coalition of parties that oppose concessions to the Palestinians, while the easier option, would mean continued deadlock in Mideast peace efforts and increased confrontation with the international community, including Israel's key ally, the United States.

A broad coalition could force Netanyahu to give powerful Cabinet posts to more moderate figures as the price of their support, and would likely draw fierce opposition from within his own Likud Party.

In either case, the odds for a breakthrough in peace talks appear faint at best, because no Netanyahu-led coalition is likely to offer the Palestinians better peace terms than those they already have received and either rejected or ignored under previous governments. Netanyahu's own positions fall far short of anything acceptable to the Palestinians.

Likud officials refuse to say which way they are leaning. Netanyahu's campaign chairman, Cabinet Minister Gideon Saar, said Thursday that the party hasn't even started thinking about building the coalition.

"This would send the wrong message that we've already won," Saar told an interviewer on Channel 2 TV. He said the party is focused on capturing as many seats in Israel's fragmented Knesset, or parliament, as possible.

Under Israel's system, parties win a number of seats based on the percentage of votes they receive. No party has ever won an outright majority in the 120-seat parliament. The leader of the party with the best chance of cobbling together a majority is tapped as prime minister and gets the first chance to form a coalition.

All the polls show that Netanyahu's Likud Party ? in alliance with the more nationalist Israel Beitenu party ? will win more than a quarter of the seats, and together with other rightist and religious parties should command at least a narrow overall majority. Although that can still change, the operating assumption in Israel is that Netanyahu will indeed emerge with a majority.

In part, this is because the opposition center-left bloc of parties has failed to rally behind a single dominant leader.

The conflict with the Palestinians and the fate of occupied territories, hotly debated in Israel for decades, has barely registered as a campaign issue.

Many left-leaning parties ? including the Labor Party, which traditionally has led the bloc ? have focused on internal economic issues or stressed the personalities of their leaders. This reflects the sense that Israelis have given up hopes of reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians, and stressing other issues is the best way of attracting support.

It has proven difficult, because among the current crop of party leaders Netanyahu is widely seen ? even by some opponents ? as the most plausible prime minister.

The 63-year-old prime minister has cultivated an image as a tough leader who protects Israelis' security in a fast-changing region, helping draw world attention to Iran's suspect nuclear program and responding forcefully to rocket fire from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

A Smith Research poll published in the Jerusalem Post Friday showed the Likud-Yisrael Beitenu alliance would win 33 seats compared to 14 to his hawkish rival the Jewish Home party and 17 to the Labor party. The bloc of religious and nationalist parties was poised to win 66 seats, according to Smith Research, which surveyed 800 people and had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. Other polls showed similar results.

A hard-line alliance would be the easy choice for Netanyahu. But it could also have negative consequences for his country's international image.

While Netanyahu has professed to favor the establishment of a Palestinian state as part of a peace agreement, Likud is now dominated by hard-liners who oppose territorial concessions to the Palestinians. The leader of a likely coalition partner, the pro-settler Jewish Home, has gone even further, saying Israel should annex large swaths of the West Bank, the heartland of any future Palestinian state.

During a tumultuous four-year term, Netanyahu has drawn fierce criticism internationally for his handling of the Palestinian issue and his refusal to stop building Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. More than 500,000 Israelis now live in these areas, which were captured by Israel during the 1967 war and are claimed by Palestinians along with Gaza for their state.

The Palestinians refuse to negotiate while settlements continue to be built, saying the construction is a sign of bad faith.

Netanyahu says talks should begin without any preconditions. He also says a partial settlement freeze he imposed in 2009 and 2010 failed to bring about negotiations, and says the real obstacle to peace is Palestinian intransigence.

Internationally, Netanyahu has found little sympathy. His allies in Washington and Europe have condemned recent settlement plans in unusually harsh language, and European countries have begun to hint of punitive measures against Israel.

In a sign of displeasure with Netanyahu, the U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in November to recognize a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. Netanyahu rejects a pullback to Israel's 1967 lines.

This week, President Barack Obama was quoted as saying that Netanyahu's unwillingness to make concessions to the Palestinians is plunging Israel into diplomatic isolation. "Israel doesn't know what its own best interests are," Obama was quoted by American columnist Jeffrey Goldberg, who is known to have good contacts in the White House, as saying.

Netanyahu responded to the report in an interview Saturday night to Israel's channel 2 TV. He said relations are good with the U.S. but "there are differences of opinion."

"When they tell me to return to 1967 lines, I stand against it. When they tell me not to build in Jerusalem, I stand against it," Netanyahu said.

"It would be terribly easy to capitulate ? I could return to indefensible borders and divide Jerusalem and let Hamas get 400 meters from my home ... (But) I have to stand firm on our vital interests even when it's not popular, that is the prime minister's job," he said.

Some Israelis conclude that the country's very existence could be in question if it does not reach a peace accord with the Palestinians. The continued occupation of millions of disenfranchised Palestinians will turn Israel into an apartheid-like country with a Jewish minority ruling over what will ultimately be an Arab majority, they say.

This argument, once considered radical in Israel, has begun to go mainstream. Perhaps its most vocal proponent is former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who four years ago led peace talks with the Palestinians and recently founded a new party whose primary aim is to reach a peace agreement. "Netanyahu is leading us toward the end of the Jewish state," she said recently.

Netanyahu himself alluded to the issue Friday in an interview with Israel TV.

"I am not in favor of a binational state," he said. "We need to reach a solution. I don't want to rule the Palestinians and I don't want them to rule us and threaten our existence."

However, he appears in no hurry to act accordingly, and the left and its supporters are increasingly bold in predicting doom.

Earlier this month, the recently retired head of Israel's Shin Bet internal security service, Yuval Diskin, criticized Netanyahu for failing to aggressively press ahead with peace efforts during a time of calm.

"If I cause the Israeli voter to think twice before choosing parties and leaders that are not worthy because they are actually not leading us where we should be going, I've done my part," Diskin said.

Such criticism has fueled speculation that Netanyahu will explore the possibility of bringing centrist partners into his coalition. The likely candidates would be Livni's new party The Movement and There is a Future, another newcomer led by former TV talk-show host Yair Lapid.

Both candidates have promised to drive a hard bargain. Appearing on TV Thursday night, Livni said she would join Netanyahu only if there are serious peace efforts and she is given a key role.

"I will not sit in a government that will continue the stalemate," she said.

Lapid has indicated more flexibility, focusing his campaign primarily on the plight of Israel's struggling middle class. But he told The Associated Press this week that he would not be a "fig leaf" for an extremist government.

The winner of Tuesday's election will have six weeks to put together his coalition. Netanyahu has sent mixed signals in interviews, saying that he wants a broad government to ensure stability but also saying that partners will have to accept his policies. The conventional wisdom is that the coalition will be even more hard-line than the outgoing coalition.

The prospect of another Netanyahu term has fueled a sense of despair among Palestinians, who fear that his ambitious plans for settlement construction over the next four years could kill their dreams of independence. Their hope is that Obama, emboldened by his own re-election, will put heavy pressure on Netanyahu to return to negotiations.

"The first strong impression is that peace is not on the agenda of the Israeli parties, and it's clear that Netanyahu is winning," said Mohammed Ishtayeh, an aide to President Mahmoud Abbas.

___

Associated Press Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-01-19-Israel-Netanyahu's%20Choice/id-95bec10ae49f45b6850de2d31bf5a367

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Gary Kubiak Thinks Matt Schaub Is a Top Quarterback in Football Despite Loss to Patriots

FOXBORO, Mass. ? Matt Schaub may have thrown for 343 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday against the Patriots, but if you?re accepting those stats at face value, you likely weren?t watching the divisional round game.

Schaub struggled early against New England, which is part of the reason why the Patriots were able to jump out to a 31-13 lead before the Texans scurried to score some points in the fourth quarter. Despite Schaub?s up and down game, though, head coach Gary Kubiak is full of confidence in his quarterback.

?I think he?s one of the top quarterbacks in football. He?s had his team in great position for the last two years,? said Kubiak. ?I believe in our quarterback whole heartedly, and my point is that we are going to continue to push him to a new level as a player.?

Schaub will be 32 when the 2013 season starts, so there?s definitely a question whether Schaub can get to that next level as Kubiak wants him to. Schaub is just as confident in his talents as his head coach is.

?There is no doubt that I belong [with the quarterbacks who won this weekend],? said Schaub. ?I think I belong right up there with every one of them.?

Schaub won his first playoff game last week against the Bengals. In 2011, the Texans were able to beat Cincinnati with T.J. Yates behind center. Despite the fact that Schaub and Kubiak think the Texans? quarterback is among the best in the league, the 31-year-old still thinks he can get better.

?No doubt. No doubt,? said Schaub. ?Each and every game, each and every year you find things that you can get better at individually that make yourself better, make your team better, make you more efficient.?

There?s a debate to be had about whether teams should just accept adequate play from their quarterbacks. Schaub made the Pro Bowl this season, but much of the team?s struggles down the stretch could be placed on his shoulders. It?s possible he was still recovering this season from the lisfranc injury that knocked him out in 2011, but if anything it looks like he?s been regressing as his career has gone along.

Kubiak is confident in Schaub, so that means the Texans will have at least one more season with their current starter at the helm. Schaub signed a five-year extension in September, but only 2012 and 2013 are guaranteed. It may be wise for the Texans to at least draft a quarterback in April to challenge Schaub for the future.

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Source: http://nesn.com/2013/01/gary-kubiak-thinks-matt-schaub-is-a-top-quarterback-in-football-despite-patriots-loss/

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