However, despite all this, he now stands as a "kingmaker" in Israeli politics after his success in the recent election, in which his Yisrael Beiteinu (Our Home Israel) party managed to increase its seats from 11 to 15, elevating the party to the third position after Kadima and Likud.With this increased political strength, Lieberman now stands to influence the future political landscape more than any other politician in Israel, and that is why Tzipi Livni, the leader of Kadima, and Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of Likud, have been trying to enlist his support for the next government.
Lieberman was born in 1958 in Kishinev, the capital of Moldova, then a part of the Soviet Union. He worked as a nightclub bouncer for some time in Kishinev and then as a broadcaster in Baku, Azerbaijan, before immigrating to Israel in 1978 at the age of 20. In Israel, he served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and received a bachelor's degree in international relations and political science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Between 1983 and 1988 Lieberman helped launch the Zionist Forum for Soviet Jewry, served on the board of the Jerusalem Economic Corporation and was the secretary of the Jerusalem branch of the National Workers Union. Between 1993 and 1996, he served was director-general of Likud, and from 1996 to 1997 he was director-general of the Prime Minister's Office serving then-Prime Minister Netanyahu. In 1999, he broke away from Likud to found the Yisrael Beiteinu party.
Lieberman was elected that year to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, where he served as chairman of the Israel-Moldova Parliamentary Friendship League. In March 2001, Lieberman was appointed minister of national infrastructure, but resigned the post in March 2002. He was re-elected in January 2003 as part of a National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu coalition and, that February, was appointed minister of transportation. However, his strong opposition to disengagement from the Gaza Strip led then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to dismiss him from his cabinet in May 2004.
When his party won 11 seats in the Knesset in March 2006, his political star began to shine once again, and he eventually joined the government of Ehud Olmert, becoming deputy prime minister and minister of strategic affairs. This ministry was, above all, charged with dealing with the Iranian threat to the state of Israel.
We do not know exactly what Lieberman achieved during his tenure at this ministry, but one thing is clear: He had very strong views about the Iranian threat. To elaborate on this, let me remind you of what he said in an interview in December 2006. "Our first task is to convince Western countries to adopt a tough approach to the Iranian problem," which he described as "the biggest threat facing the Jewish people since the Second World War." Aftern noting, "We must also be prepared to deal alone with this problem," he added, "The dialogue with Iran will be a 100-percent failure, just like it was with North Korea."
Needless to say, he still adheres to these views with regards to Iran -- just like Likud leader Netanyahu, who has repeatedly mentioned that Iran is the number one problem Israel faces. So Lieberman and Netanyahu share the same position with regards to Iran.
Lieberman pulled out of the government in January 2008 because he refused to back its peace talks with the Palestinians on core issues under the US-backed Annapolis process. In fact, he is strongly opposed to the concept of "land for peace" on which the proposed two-state solution is based. On Hamas and the recent Israeli offensive in Gaza, Lieberman argued that Israel must continue to fight Hamas just as the US did the Japanese in World War II -- leaving some observers to wonder whether he was advocating the use of nuclear weapons.
To sum up, with his views and his newly enhanced power, Lieberman is a man to watch. If he takes part in any government, Iran will become the first and foremost foreign issue for Israel -- not the peace process -- and that, of course, might lead to serious international repercussions.
