Twenty years ago, the former director general of the Likud Party founded Yisrael Beytenu, after his boss, Benjamin Netanyahu failed to meet his expectations of making him into the top 10 slots of the party list. And so, for 20 years, this bitter rivalry has continued, because it seems Netanyahu is the one enemy Lieberman cannot make disappear.
In the 2006 elections, Lieberman came closer than ever to achieving his goal. Just a few votes stood between him and sweet revenge. Yisrael Beytenu acquired 11 Knesset seats, compared to 12 garnered by Likud. Lieberman did not give up, and tried to enlist allies in the effort to task Netanyahu with heading the opposition. But Lieberman was to be disappointed.
Following the release of the results of the 2009 elections, Lieberman departed for Minsk. It was only at the close of the nerve-racking week that he returned home and recommended to the president that Netanyahu, and not then-Kadima party leader Tzipi Livni, be tasked with forming the government.
Fearing a repeat of the scenario, Netanyahu signed a deal to join forces with Yisrael Beytenu on the eve of the 2013 elections. This joint faction earned 31 Knesset seats in the election, after which Lieberman dismantled the alliance. The deal ended up blowing up the 2013 government, and led the Likud to lose 2 mandates to Yisrael Beytenu; the first when Reuven Rivlin was appointed president and the second when Gideon Sa'ar resigned from the Knesset. Two representatives form Yisrael Beytenu took their place.
On the face of things, the 2013 government was the best hope for all those who want the haredim to have an equal share in the burden of military service in Israeli society. Late Yisrael Beytenu member and chairman of the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee David Rotem began to promote the legislation of such a law, but his party's chairman chose instead to take on the role of neighborhood bully. Yisrael Beytenu's 13 Knesset seats shifted the balance, Yesh Atid overtook the Likud, and Lieberman, along with Yesh Atid's Yair Lapid, began to threaten Netanyahu that he would consolidate a majority of 61 Knesset seats that would recommend the president to task Lapid with forming an alternative government. Netanyahu responded by calling new elections.
Those who claim the issue of religion and state are nothing more than a figure of the imagination are wrong. Violent protests by the extremist haredi Jerusalem faction in recent years, alongside attempts to alter the character of the public space, have emphasized this societal rift. Lieberman recognized the discomfort and asked to serve as its address. But this is not a principled struggle from his standpoint, but a blatant excuse. Arguing over whether the quotas for haredi military enlistment each year will be determined by the law or by a special Defense Ministry committee is like arguing over whether it is better to take a Tylenol or Advil to treat pneumonia.
Just six months ago, a far more principled dispute broke out. The second round of voting in the Jerusalem municipal elections between secular candidate Ofer Berkovitch and the ultra-Orthodox backed Moshe Lion dealt in principle with the issue of religion and state. Lieberman, who purports to raise the flag of the struggle against a halachic state, in fact served as Lion's kingmaker in the election.
There is nothing new under the sun. Surrender to blackmail will always encourage further blackmail. For the good of the coalition, there may have been room to yield to New Right party leader Naftali Bennett or Kulanu party chief Moshe Kahlon. But not to Lieberman. It was a mistake to agree to an alliance that increased his power, and it is a mistake to create a precedent and task the chairman of a party with five Knesset seats with the defense portfolio. From Netanyahu's perspective, it may have been better to continue with a 61-member coalition or head to elections a year and a half ago.
One must never satisfy the appetite of the neighborhood bully, in this case, the party head who, by some miracle, passed the electoral threshold, and now demands to be appointed to the second most important job in the state. Such is the nature of a bully.
