THE KINGMAKER IN ISRAEL: AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN

UPDATE: Caroline Glick said,

Essentially, the exit polls (which are notoriously inaccurate and tend towards the left here), show that the right-wing won the elections and the left-wing lost. But they also show that the public has little faith in Binyamin Netanyahu. Moreover, they show that Tzipi Livni ran the race of a lifetime and will have the capacity to make life difficult for Netanyahu.

Netanyahu will be the next prime minister.

Tzipi Livni of the Kadima party and Binyamin Netanyahu of the Likud party (Israel's largest party) are neck and neck in the final tallies of the Israel election, with a slight lead to lefty Livni. Netanyahu blew it. I say this because while the Livni/Netanyahu race may be very close - the right won the night. Big time.

With 99.7 percent of the votes counted, Kadima was narrowly leading Likud with a predicted 28 mandates, while the latter had garnered a predicted 27 seats. Israel Beiteinu was expected to earn 15 mandates, Labor 13, Shas 11, United Arab List four, United Torah Judaism five, National Union four, Hadash four, Meretz three, Bayit Hayehudi three, and Balad three. (here)

Because the Israeli election is so close - and not configured the way the American elections are (not even remotely) - they have a complicated situation. The bottom line is the right won big. And a coalition government must be built.

The surprise winner was Avigdor Lieberman.

We've turned into a significant party, the third largest in Israel," Lieberman told cheering supporters. "It's true that Tzipi Livni won a surprise victory. But what is more important is that the right-wing camp won a clear majority... We want a right-wing government. That's our wish and we don't hide it.

Israel Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman will back a Likud-led coalition, so Netanyahu will be Prime Minister, but it's important to understand the man  who holds the keys to the kingdom. Over at J Post:

Lieberman is also seeking to be appointed to a senior cabinet position, such as defense minister or finance minister, wants Daniel Friedmann retained as justice minister, is strongly advocating electoral reform and wants the next coalition committed to toppling Hamas in Gaza. But those demands are not an absolute precondition for him backing Netanyahu in the wake of Tuesday's election, it is understood, and neither is a pledge of progress on other key Israel Beiteinu policies including enacting a loyalty oath.

If his demands for easing the conversion process and instituting civil registration for couples who cannot get married by Orthodox law are not met, however, Lieberman is emphatically prepared to ally his party with Kadima instead. Those two demands are regarded as crucial to the party's credibility with its voters.

When asked about serving in a government together with Lieberman following a meeting with Netanyahu at the Knesset on Wednesday, Shas chairman Eli Yishai said that "more extreme partnerships had been made," and Shas leaders insisted that suggestions that the party's spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef had branded Lieberman "Satan" were inaccurate.

It certainly sends a message to anti-semitic Muslims in Gaza and the Islamic world that Israel will not sit idly by while Islamic jihad picks off Jews in lone jihad attacks or shells the north and south of Israel. And that is a very good thing.

Take a look at what Israel voted for. Anyone who tells you the ideological race is close ...is not even.... close.

Back in December 2006 I met with and covered a MEF event with the real winner in this year's election, the kingmaker Lieberman here. So who is Lieberman?

The unfaithful cannot be citizens. Avigdor Lieberman

Daniel Pipes hosted a Middle East Forum lunch earlier today in NYC with Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister Avignor Lieberman which I was most privileged to attend.  Founder of the Yisrael Beiteinu, holding 11 of the 120 seats in the Israeli Parliament, it is the 5th largest party in Israel. Second most popular  political figure (Bibi Netanyahu leads), he is right of center -- the opposite of the weak, appeaser Olmert. More curious than anything else was I of how Lieberman  could sanction the policies of the feckless  Olmert government by being a part of it? Photo right: Avignor and Atlas

I respect Lieberman. Canceling a planned appearance at the Public Relations Council in New York because Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had spoken there two months before was righteous indeed. I respect such action.

Lieberman's ministerial position deals primarily with the threat of Iran's developing nuclear program.  And he insists that this is why he joined Olmert 's government --  to address the greatest threat confronting Israel.

“Ahmadinejad is not a rational player,”  “Any attempt to pacify him is like before the second World War in Europe.”

(Photo: Atlas and Lieberman in New York 12/06)

Iran president: Israel will be wiped out

He began his remarks by saying that those who are not faithful to Israel cannot expect to have full rights. He would have  Israelis to sign a commitment to loyalty to the Israeli flag and to its national anthem, and of requiring service in the army or other national service. Citizens who wouldn't  sign the declaration could continue to live in Israel, working, studying, and getting health care benefits, but they could not vote in national elections or be elected to national office.

“It’s not racism. The test is loyalty, not their religion.”

He said he would also deny Israeli citizenship to extreme anti-Zionist Orthodox Jewish groups, specifically pointing to Neturei Karta, which sent representatives to this week’s Holocaust denial conference in Tehran. 

Lieberman presented his solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict

"Israel has the right to demand full allegiance from all its citizens. He who is not ready to recognize Israel as a Jewish and Zionist state, cannot be a citizen in the country. Of course, this is TREASON This applies to extremists of the Neturei Karta [anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews -Atlas] as well as to extremist factions of the Islamic Movement."

There's video of Lieberman's remarks here, and a 2006 Caroline Glick interview on this subject here.

The kingmaker, Lieberman, is no stranger to Atlas readers. Back in 2006 I reported that

Israel creates new ministry to deal with Iran threat
JERUSALEM (AFP) - The Israeli government has approved the creation of a new ministry for strategic affairs, to be headed by a controversial ultra-nationalist and deal mainly with Iran's nuclear ambitions.

During the weekly cabinet meeting, "all the ministers approved the decision to form the ministry for strategic affairs" under Avigdor Lieberman, whose Yisrael Beitenu party joined Prime Minister's Ehud Olmert's government in October, a official said on condition of anonymity on Sunday.

The ministry will be responsible "for coordination between the different bodies regarding the different strategic threats        Israel is facing," most notably Iran's nuclear programme, which the Jewish state and the United States believe is aimed at acquiring a nuclear bomb, despite Tehran's denials.

Israel -- widely considered the Middle East's sole, if undeclared, nuclear weapons power -- considers Iran its chief threat, pointing to calls from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map.