In May 2013, former Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon gave his incriminating testimony in the trial of former Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman concerning the appointment of Israel’s ambassador to Belarus. Ayalon’s testimony is now the main pivot of the affair, which naturally made major headlines in all the Israeli media. The website of Channel 9 — the only Russian-language channel in Israel — also covered the court testimony of the former deputy minister. But keen-eyed online surfers noticed that after a while, the testimony disappeared from the site.

The story behind the mysterious disappearance of that news item reveals the great influence that Liberman still wields over the major Israeli Russian-language media outlets, and through them over the Russian-speaking public in Israel. The office of the Yisrael Beiteinu chairman and former foreign minister was greatly displeased with the prominence accorded to Ayalon’s testimony on the site, and demanded its removal. Eventually, the two sides reached a compromise: The testimony was posted on the site once again, but in an obscure location. So obscure, that even the most competent of online surfers had a hard time finding it. It’s there, but in fact it isn’t.

Given the continued shrinking of the immigrants’ sectorial representation in the Knesset in recent years, no one in the community wants to get into trouble with Liberman — the only one who can promote the immigrants’ interests in the corridors of power. This continues to be true despite a certain erosion in Liberman’s standing among the electorate on which he built his political career. A part of the loss in electoral strength stems from his party’s not terribly successful union with the Likud Party in the last elections, which blurred Liberman’s image as a clear leader of the community. Many now feel that the former foreign minister chose his own personal interests over those of the community.

At the same time, behavior patterns of the Russian-speaking community have been evolving.