Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman speaks to his voters using three different languages: Russian, Arabic, and – until recently – "Rightish." In Hebrew, he is polite. He embraces an ultra-Orthodox man and says in a velvety voice: "We aren't asking much of you, just that you participate." He doesn't oppose a Jewish state or Jewish tradition – just the idea of a state run by Jewish law. He's a party leader who met with rabbis just a couple of weeks ago. He listens. He smiles. He hugs.
But in Russian, the type of leadership that seeks peace, brotherhood, and love of Israel disappears. A single voice speaks from the screen: one that is crude, threatening, and has two targets – the haredim, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Naturally, Netanyahu is the root of all evil: a failure in terms of the economy and security and defense; a leader who forces a North Korean-style cult of personality on his party; and mostly is eager to pay the haredim as much as he needs to, in cash, straight out of the taxpayers' pockets. Someone who showers banknotes on bearded men dressed in black.
In one campaign clip, Border Police are seen going door to door and leading religious Jews wrapped in prayer shawls to the army recruitment center, thanks to Lieberman. So what if in the past, when his party had 15 Knesset seats, he couldn't have cared less about the haredim taking on an equal share of the burden? That was a different Lieberman.
The haredim in Lieberman's clips, black-clad and repulsive, demand more and more money – the stereotype is familiar.
No, these aren't anti-Semitic videos, because both the attacker and the attacked are Jews. Much like Professor Zeev Sternhell's calls to drive tanks into the settlement of Ofra were "merely" incitement. The reek of incitement in Lieberman's videos is so disgusting that this writer – rather than debating between the Likud and the United Right – wanted to debate for a moment between the Likud and the ultra-Orthodox Shas.
When speaking Hebrew, Lieberman is limited in his choice of expressions and figurative language. Go convince the average Israeli that a prime minister who can't put together whatever Knesset list he wants, because his party holds democratic primaries, is a tyrant, while the leader of Yisrael Beytenu, who is the only one who decides on the party list, is somehow a knight of democracy.
Even the "anyone but Bibi" voters aren't buying that. Even the moldy old haredi stereotype no longer works on the average Israeli. That's why only when speaking Russian does Lieberman allow himself to be so crude, but in Hebrew, he's just paternalistic.
There is also Lieberman's third language, which has changed. Before the election, he spoke "Rightish," whereas today, he speaks "Unity." So he promised a right-wing, liberal government – today, he promises (in Russian) a broad, liberal, national government on his Facebook page.
Don't be surprised if after the election he rushes into a left-wing/centrist/haredi government – if that is an option. It would be a different Lieberman, the one who speaks in Hebrew, who joins that kind of government.
