On this day: Israel goes to the polls

Livni’s success, however, did not translate into political control. Instead, Netanyahu was asked to form a government.

The coalition that emerged brought together Labour, who had previously stated they would not contemplate a deal with Netanyahu, and right-wing elements including Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu. Lieberman became Foreign Minister while then-Labour leader Ehud Barak took on the Defence portfolio.

What the JC said: While Lieberman can take pride in the fact that the party he created has, in a decade, become Israel’s third-largest parliamentary faction, he will no doubt reflect on the fact that the polls had predicted an even greater number of seats. His strident anti-Arab campaign boomeranged to the extent that it encouraged Israeli Arabs to vote in greater numbers than had been predicted, ensuring three seats for Balad, the most extreme of the Israeli Arab parties running for the Knesset and one that Lieberman had unsuccessfully tried to ban.

See more from the JC archives here.