Likud’s proposed jettisoning of the two-state solution and

Netanyahu’s unwillingness to let go of the Golan Heights put off the centrist voter; the rightist voter remained unconvinced, knowing that, historically, centre-right governments under Likud have made more concessions to Palestinians than centre-left ones under Labor or Kadima. As for Labor, at a historic low of fourth position, it must stay with Kadima, in government or opposition, in its own interest.

That brings us to the fulcrum of this election, a man now kingmaker, whose move will determine whether President Shimon Peres calls Netanyahu or Livni: Avigdor Lieberman. This polarising and controversial politician of Russian descent personifies the nation’s change in mood and is the only figurehead whose personality and rhetoric alone got votes. Leftists, centrists and international observers pronounced him racist and fascist. Israeli Arabs and Palestinians hate him. He had asked for the execution of Arab Knesset members who kept ties with Hamas. He wants citizenship to be contingent on “loyalty” — Israeli Arabs who fail the test, should thereby be deprived of theirs. He wants large Jewish settlements in the West Bank annexed to Israel (and correspondingly Arab-majority towns in East Jerusalem handed to the Palestinian Authority). Part of his radical agenda is also civil marriage, something absent from Israel. His territorial swap may be a quick-fix solution and his platform downright discriminatory, but Hanoch Daum asked in the Yedioth Ahronoth, echoing a Beiteinu member: why is the same man called “pragmatic” when he’s part of a centrist government (as he was from October 2006 to January 2008) and a “fanatic” when he wishes to join a rightist one?

... contd.