Livni, Herzog fear the collapse of Liberman's party
Potential allies of Avigdor Liberman, such as Isaac Herzog, Tzipi Livni and Moshe Kahlon, might rethink their political attitude toward him, following corruption suspicions against some of his party members.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman had a well-prepared and cohesive campaign plan for the 2015 elections — a masterpiece based on in-depth polling results and the familiar Liberman pragmatism, designed to move him closer to the political center.
His shift to the center, as reflected in banner headlines setting out Liberman’s peace plans and including sharp criticism of the damage caused by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s diplomacy of status quo, is political genius. Liberman’s plan for aligning himself with the center, which emerged soon after early elections were announced on Nov. 28, was designed to turn the chairman of the Yisrael Beitenu Party into a legitimate candidate for the position of prime minister and an attractive choice for left-wing voters.
As he has done in recent election cycles, with the help of his American strategist Arthur Finkelstein, Liberman managed to identify and dissect deep-seated trends among the Israeli public and the centers of gravity on the political map to adapt the most contemporary suit to fit his party. He understood that he had reached the limit of his electoral appeal on the right and that he could not compete with its rising star, Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett. He also understood that his hold on the Russian-speaking public — which was his mainstay for years — was being eroded by a natural process of “Israelization” among the younger generation of immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
Just then, with his power waning and the achievement of 15 Knesset seats in the 2009 elections seeming far and unrepeatable, he understood that he was faced with a one-time chance of becoming prime minister. How? By riding the “Anyone but Bibi” wave and turning himself into a modular player, meaning one suitable for a right-wing government, but no less so for a pragmatic, center-left government.
