The bewilderment felt by most Israelis over what has become of Israeli politics over the past year is unlikely to ease after what seems to be inevitable third elections are called on Wednesday night. If anything, this sense of confusion is only likely to grow as a fourth consecutive general election already looms on the horizon, somewhere in early September 2020.
All polls and the vast majority of political assessments indicate that the March 2 elections are unlikely to resolve the political logjam Israel has found itself in. The parties' leaders and their supporters can play all the blame games they want – it won't really change the fact that in three months' time we will find ourselves at exactly the same point, listening to the same accusations and futile arguments as we head to the polls – again.
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Let's be honest: The political stalemate crippling Israel is everyone's fault. But while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz had a hand in it as have front- and backstage political actors, the Israeli public has been made to pay for their intransigence.
But the simple truth is that we have gotten to this point thanks largely to the self-serving agenda of one man – Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman, and if the polls are right, he will hold the keys to a potential fourth election as well.
Anyone who enjoys going to the polls every few months while the running of the country comes to a grinding halt should, by all means, vote for Yisrael Beytenu. But if political limbo is not your cup of tea then you should cast a different ballot.
Regardless of one's political views, platform or policy, a vote for Lieberman is a vote for a fourth election. In two election campaigns, Lieberman did not lend his support to any party that could form a coalition. His presence in the political scene prevents both the right-wing and left-wing blocs from securing the 61 Knesset seats necessary to form a government and in fact, since April's elections, Lieberman has become a one-man political stumbling block.
You can like him personally, connect with his politics and applaud his zigzags, but at the same time, you have to know that voting for him is a vote for the continued political void and an eternal transitional government whose term doesn't end – and probably won't end as long as he has the same type of power.
September's elections saw the Right short of six seats and the Left missing four to form a viable coalition. If the next election sees every right-wing voter and every left-wing voter cast their ballots for the bigger parties in their respective blocks then we will finally have decisive results. One of the blocs will secure 61 seats and form a government.
But if Lieberman is again allowed to corner precious mandates, thus allowing him to keep the position of a political kingmaker who holds the fate of the government in his hands, then we are sure to repeat the process time and again.
Lieberman has clearly stated that he will not join a Netanyahu-led government over the presence of the ultra-Orthodox parties, nor will he team with Gantz, over the support of the Joint Arab List. It is also obvious, given the past few weeks, that he has no power to force the formation of a national unity government. In other words, Lieberman cannot be a solution to anything simply because if anything, he is the problem.
