Yisrael Beiteinu

Yisrael Beiteinu, Israeli political party established in 1999 by Avigdor Lieberman. Like the Likud Party, Yisrael Beiteinu was founded as a national movement meant to follow the path of Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880–1940) and focus on immigration, Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and defense. It is distinguished by its significant support from Israel’s Russian immigrant population and by its non-conciliatory stance toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as its advocacy of loyalty to the Jewish state and national service as conditions of Israeli citizenship.

Foundation and early history

Yisrael Beiteinu was formed by Lieberman in 1999, after he left the right-wing political party Likud following a falling-out with party leader and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his concessions to the Palestinians in the Wye River Memorandum. The new party, which drew its membership mainly from Russian immigrants, won four seats in the 120-seat Knesset (parliament) in the 1999 national election. In February 2000 Yisrael Beiteinu joined forces with the National Union, a faction made up of several right-leaning political groups. After Ariel Sharon won the premiership in February 2001, the National Union joined his unity government. Protesting that Sharon was not dealing with the Palestinian Authority strongly enough, it resigned in March 2002. In the January 2003 parliamentary elections the National Union won seven seats, and in late February, on Sharon’s urging, it again joined his government. In June 2004 the National Union left the government after Sharon dismissed Lieberman and another National Union leader, Benyamin Elon, in order to eliminate their opposition to his plan for unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.

In late 2004 Yisrael Beiteinu announced the end of its association with the National Union. In the parliamentary elections of March 2006 Yisrael Beiteinu ran on a separate ticket, winning 11 seats, and in October 2006 Prime Minister Ehud Olmert brought Yisrael Beiteinu into his new coalition government. In January 2007 the party clashed with the social-democratic Israel Labour Party over its appointment of Israel’s first Muslim Arab minister, Raleb Majadele, as minister of science and technology. Yisrael Beiteinu’s criticism of the appointment drew a heated reaction, and some called for the expulsion of Yisrael Beiteinu from Olmert’s coalition government over the matter. In January 2008, however, Yisrael Beiteinu resigned of its own accord in response to the Annapolis process (U.S.-led peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, held in late 2007 in Annapolis, Maryland, U.S.).

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Rise in influence

While campaigning for Yisrael Beiteinu prior to the 2009 general election, Lieberman posed sharp questions about Israel’s Palestinian minority, expressing doubts about their loyalty to the Jewish state and threatening to make their right to citizenship dependent on an oath of allegiance. In the election itself, held on February 10, 2009, Yisrael Beiteinu secured 15 seats in the Knesset to finish in third place, effectively giving it the power to decide whether or not to lend its strength to a coalition with one of the parties that finished ahead of it: centrist Kadima (“Forward”), led by foreign minister Tzipi Livni, or Likud, led by Netanyahu. Lieberman emphasized the need for a broad coalition that included all three leading parties but ultimately supported Likud, and Yisrael Beiteinu joined Likud, the Israel Labour Party, and other parties in forming a governing coalition. On March 31 Lieberman was sworn in as Israel’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, and the next day he renounced Israel’s commitment to the Annapolis process. In May 2009 Yisrael Beiteinu introduced a citizenship law and other legislation perceived as discriminatory against Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Yisrael Beiteinu ran in a combined list with Likud in 2013. Both parties kept their own political platforms. The Likud–Yisrael Beiteinu bloc won the largest number of seats but fell short of expectations, winning fewer than the two parties had won separately in 2009. They formed a unity government with Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid and Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua. Early elections were held in 2015 after the collapse of the unity government. Yisrael Beiteinu won only six seats, but Lieberman was given the high-level post of defense minister when he agreed to join the coalition in 2016. He resigned from the post in November 2018, when Netanyahu agreed to a cease-fire with Hamas after an intense round of fighting, and Yisrael Beiteinu withdrew from the coalition.

Early elections were held in April 2019, and Yisrael Beiteinu won a mere five seats. Nonetheless, coalition prospects were too narrow for Netanyahu (who had been designated to form a government) to disregard either Yisrael Beiteinu or the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties. They were at odds, however, over conscription exemptions for the Haredim, which had long been a source of controversy and were due for renewal. Negotiations to form a coalition remained at an impasse, and new elections were called for September. Though Yisrael Beiteinu increased its representation to eight seats in September, that election resulted in roughly the same stalemate as the last. Lieberman, playing the role of kingmaker, insisted that the party would join only a unity government that included both the Likud list and the rival Blue and White list, the two largest parties. No such arrangement was made, however, and again no government could be formed. A third election, held in March 2020, occurred against the backdrop of the global COVID-19 pandemic, which lead Likud and Blue and White to form an emergency unity government after all. By this point, however, Yisrael Beiteinu refused to join a government led by Netanyahu, who had been indicted on corruption charges in November 2019.