ABSTRACT
The general elections of 2009 have returned the most right-wing Knesset in Israel’s history. The Labor Party, that had founded the state and was led in these elections by Ehud Barak, formerly prime minister and chief of staff of the IDF, elected only thirteen members to the new Knesset, two members short of Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Our Home), an extreme right wing party headed by a West Bank settler, Avigdor Lieberman. 1 Lieberman, under investigation for corruption for the past several years, had gained notoriety with his plan to shift Israel’s border westward in the central section of the country, heavily populated with Palestinian citizens, in order to deprive its Palestinian inhabitants of their Israeli citizenship. His main slogans in the 2009 elections were “no citizenship without loyalty” (implying that Israel’s Palestinian citizens should be denied citizenship rights) and “Lieberman understands Arabic” (which, of course, he doesn’t). In the new cabinet formed by Benjamin Netanyahu after the elections, Lieberman serves as foreign minister.
