About a month before the last election, the chairman of Yisrael Beiteinu, Knesset member Avigdor Liberman, told a press conference that ultra-Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox nationalists will have more sway in the next Knesset than ever before and that the next coalition will probably include 20-25 members who support a state run on the principles of Jewish law.

Liberman ran under the slogan “Right-wing and secular” and frequently attacked the ultra-Orthodox. His prediction served his message well: Only he could block efforts at religious coercion by the next government. He sent Knesset members from Yisrael Beiteinu to support public transportation in Tiberias, initiated by the city’s new Mayor Ron Kobi as part of his own fight against religious coercion in the town.

Liberman knows how to reinvent himself every election campaign. In 2019, he chose to be the flag-bearer for secularism. After all, his electorate consists mostly of Russian immigrants and is completely secular.

Liberman was right on two counts. First, he passed the electoral threshold with a respectable five seats, despite all the polls predicting he would be wiped off the political map. Second, he also foresaw the rise of the ultra-Orthodox parties. Including the ultra-Orthodox nationalist parties, they now hold 21 seats in the current Knesset: eight for Shas, eight for Yahadut HaTorah and five for the United Right.