DSeid
February 7, 2009, 9:04pm
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Avigdor Lieberman is a secular rightist who heads Yisrael Beitenu which is apparently positioned to get more seats in next week’s Israeli elections than is Labour.
Some background:
An Economist article.
Mr Lieberman, the dark horse, is branded by the left as racist, even fascist. He wants Israeli Arabs, nearly 20% of the population, to pledge allegiance to the state and be required to do military or national service. “No loyalty—no citizenship” is one of Yisrael Beitenu’s election slogans, along with “Only Lieberman understands Arabic”. He also proposes a repartition of Palestine so that areas of Israel with large Arab populations can be transferred to the Palestinian Authority in return for areas of the West Bank settled by Jews. The Arab communities in question are unanimously and vehemently opposed to the plan. …
… Mr Lieberman, who began his public career as Mr Netanyahu’s aide, has not said he will back him as prime minister. Yisrael Beitenu’s supporters demand the legalisation of civil marriage and other measures to loosen the statutory grip of the rabbis on the laws governing Israelis’ personal lives. Mr Netanyahu’s Orthodox allies, and the many traditionalists inside his own Likud, would balk at some of that agenda. Ms Livni, however, would embrace it. …
… the Likud leader [Bibi Netanyahu], still chastened by an unhappy first spell as prime minister in the 1990s at the head of a right-religious coalition, is determined this time to present a more moderate profile to the world, and especially to the Obama administration. Ideally, he wants Labour in his coalition, with Mr Barak staying on as defence minister. The voters might applaud. A “unity government” is the perennial favourite in Israeli opinion polls, and Mr Barak, in high regard at home after the pummelling of Gaza, is now the most desirable defence minister in such a putative dream team.
Likud strategists believe Kadima would not survive opposition. They hope it would split, with Likud renegades coming home to Mr Netanyahu and former Labour supporters making their way back to Mr Barak. This would be good for politics in general, they piously add, restoring the Likud and Labour to their pristine places as the two big parties of the right and the left. Coalitions would become more manageable, governments more durable and the country more governable. …
And an article from the left-leaning newspaper Haaretz about his popularity with Israeli youth.
The youths, ages 16-18, many of them good friends from school, had stood for a long time before the event began at the intersection near the hotel, waving Israeli flags and shouting “Death to the Arabs” and “No loyalty, no citizenship” at passing cars. …
Will the sniping from the Right actually drive Bibi into some compromise with the Left? Or does it signal a new anti-Arabism in Israeli youth that will grow unless something changes soon?
DSeid
February 8, 2009, 7:20am
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Well in case any one is interested, it is indeed appearing that Lieberman’s popularity may bring some counterintuitive results.
Netanyahu has been fighting hard since Friday to win back voters who have unexpectedly been defecting to Yisrael Beiteinu over the past week, a trend that has narrowed the gap between Likud and Kadima. … Likud is said to be feeling the pressure that it might lose to Kadima or win by a small margin that might lead Yisrael Beiteinu chief Avigdor Lieberman to recommend that Kadima’s Tzipi Livni form the next government. Netanyahu, his associates concede, is unsure what steps Lieberman will take after the election. …
What concessions would Lieberman extract from Kadima in return for his support? Is he a worse devil’s deal than the pounds of flesh the religious parties have extracted over the years?