Liberman holds onto government kingmaker role by slim margin

Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman held on to his elevated role as kingmaker of the next government by a very slim margin based on exit polls released immediately upon the polls’ closures at 10 p.m. on Monday.

Channels 11 and 12 gave him six seats, which would be a two-seat loss compared to the eight Yisrael Beytenu received in September 2019. But it is still an increase of one from the five seats he received in April 2019.

Channel 13 had Liberman still at eight seats. For two elections running, neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor Blue and White head Benny Gantz were able to form a government without Liberman. He insisted he would only support a liberal, Zionist government without the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties of Shas and United Torah Judaism, preferring instead a liberal, Zionist, secular government made up of Blue and White and Likud. But he was unable to sway Netanyahu and Gantz to form such a government.

During the third election, Liberman failed to galvanize additional voters to the cause of ensuring a secular Israel. But in spite of the initial elation at the Likud’s success, put in pragmatic terms, the 60-seat right-wing bloc he garnered based on the exit polls, is precisely the same bloc Netanyahu achieved in the April 2019 election and he was never able to bring it to 61.

Liberman made one last-ditch attempt to get out the vote during his final campaign stops on the day of the election.

Liberman began his day by voting in his home settlement of Nokdim with his wife, Ella, posing for a photo that showed the pair putting envelopes into the large blue ballot box.

He delivered a brief, curt message to the media.

“I call on the silent majority to go out and vote. This evening will be determinative between a state based on Jewish religious law and a strong Yisrael Beytenu. Everything is dependent on you,” Liberman said.

He expanded on this in a Facebook post.

“Twice we prevented the creation of a government based on those who want public transportation on Shabbat, those who want open businesses on Shabbat, those who want civil marriage,” Liberman said.

Even as Likud was already stating they were close to a 61-seat-bloc government without Liberman, the Yisrael Beytenu leader stood in the middle of Tel Aviv, noting he had never felt so confident and with so much support.

“All those that want an Israel that is liberal and Zionist and oppose one based on religious Jewish law should vote for Yisrael Beytenu,” Liberman said.