Last November, Avigdor Lieberman resigned as Israel’s defense minister when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to reject Lieberman’s plan for a military operation in Gaza and agree to a ceasefire with Hamas instead. At the time, Lieberman called the ceasefire a “surrender to terrorism”, and of course it didn’t last very long at all. Hamas has continued to bombard Israel with rockets in the months since then, and this has once again brought Israel and Hamas to the brink of war. But everything was on hold until Tuesday’s election, and it appears that the outcome of that election is going to make war with Hamas much, much more likely.
According to the exit polls, the Blue and White party led by Benny Gantz and Netanyahu’s Likud will win about the same number of parliamentary seats. But neither of them will be able to come close to forming a majority without Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party, and that makes Lieberman Israel’s new “kingmaker”. The following comes from the BBC…
Exit polls following Israel’s second general election in five months suggest the result is too close to call.
The centrist Blue and White alliance of former military chief Benny Gantz is projected to win between 32 and 34 seats, and PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party 30 to 33 seats.
Yisrael Beiteinu party leader Avigdor Lieberman may end up being kingmaker.
This gives Lieberman an extraordinary amount of leverage, and he has already stated that he plans to use that leverage to force Likud and the Blue and White party into “a national-unity government”. The following comes from the Jerusalem Post…
Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman promised on Tuesday night that his party would fulfil its campaign vow to ensure the establishment of a national-unity government without the ultra-Orthodox and religious-Zionist parties.
“We have only one option. A liberal, national, broad unity government made of Yisrael Beytenu, Likud, and Blue and White,” said Liberman speaking above raucous cheers of jubilation at the party’s election party late Tuesday night.
Don’t be misled by Lieberman’s use of terms such as “liberal”, because the truth is that he is the number one war hawk in all of Israeli politics. READ MORE…