How Avigdor Lieberman won the Israeli election

[TomSea]

How Avigdor Lieberman won the Israeli election
Noah Millman

In his first speech to supporters after Tuesday's national elections in Israel, the winner declared that there was "only one option" — a national unity government.

Normally that would be a strange thing for a winner to trumpet; national unity governments are what you get when there is no real winner and the largest parties are so weakened that they must band together against the extremes to avert total chaos. And that, in fact, is the situation after Israel's most recent election. Based on the exit polls, it appears that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling right-wing Likud Party, and the centrist opposition Blue and White party headed by Benny Gantz, have almost equal representation at about half the seats needed to form a government.

But neither Gantz nor Netanyahu made that victory speech, because neither was the true winner of the election. The winner and speech-giver was Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the small (but not quite as small as it was) right-wing secular party, Yisrael Beiteinu ("Israel Our Home"). While Lieberman has long been viewed as both an extremist and a sower of chaos, for now he holds the balance of power in the Knesset. And if you want to know where Israel is likely going from here, he's a better guide than any other Israeli political leader.

Read more at: https://theweek.com/articles/865827/how-avigdor-lieberman-won-israeli-election