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How Blue and White must challenge Netanyahu on democracy principles

Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Liberman has positioned himself as a man of principles, so it is high time that, with a bit of creativity, Blue and White reminded theirs and presented the Likud with a list of ideological demands, each based on broad public agreement and on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declared positions.
Benny Gantz, leader of Blue and White, and party member Yair Lapid chat during their party faction meeting at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem October 3, 2019. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun - RC19B4385D20
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Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Liberman was undoubtedly the biggest winner of the September elections. Within six months, his niche Yisrael Beitenu party almost doubled its support, from 173,000 votes in the April elections to over 310,000. According to an analysis by the financial newspaper Globes, many of the new voters were disappointed supporters of the young Blue and White party that ran for the first time in April. For example, Yisrael Beitenu surged in Tel Aviv from 1.4% of the vote in April to 4.4% in September, while Blue and White dropped from 46% to less than 43%. In the neighboring town of Givatayim, a Labor party bastion, Liberman’s party soared 452%. In the town of Ra’anana, its support grew 318%, in neighboring Hod Hasharon 285% and in nearby Herzliya the number of Yisrael Beitenu voters grew 195%.

What made comfortable citizens from the greater Tel Aviv area and nearby Sharon district wander from the centrist Blue and White party, the center-left Labor and even left-wing Meretz to a party whose former leaders were embroiled in criminal wrongdoing, and their replacements are obscure Liberman soldiers? Presumably, most of the new voters did not undergo an ideological conversion within a few short months from being law-abiding, peace-loving liberals to acolytes of a West Bank settler (Liberman lives in the Nokdim settlement) who excels at inciting to hatred of the Arab minority and maligning the legal system. They were likely aware of the stories about Michal Liberman, Avigdor Liberman’s 20-year-old daughter who became rich overnight and the witnesses who turned away and ran or turned mum.

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