New leader is redefining Israel's divided right wing

[Englander]

Breaks alliance of secular hawks, religious parties

By Anne Barnard, Globe Staff | April 23, 2006

ARIEL, West Bank -- Israel's right wing is in turmoil after its flagship Likud party crumbled in last month's elections, and its new star has an unlikely pair of goals: pushing many Arab citizens out of the Jewish state while expanding the rights of non-Jewish immigrants.

Avigdor Lieberman, a Russian-speaking immigrant from the former Soviet republic of Moldova, is redefining the right wing. He has built a following by marrying a deep suspicion of Israel's Arab citizens -- critics call it racism -- with a secular nationalism that appeals to Russian-speakers who want to blunt the authority of the country's powerful rabbis.

Lieberman's rise has helped break the compact that long defined Israel's right wing, an uneasy alliance between secular security hawks and religious Jews who claim a God-given right to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel occupied in the 1967 war.

He stunned the country when his Yisrael Beitenu party swept up many of the seats lost by the long-dominant Likud, beating out religious-nationalist parties to win 11 of the parliament's 120 seats and become a key player in current talks to form a new government.

The winning party, Kadima, is courting Lieberman to join its coalition even as he vows to fight Kadima's planned unilateral pullout from parts of the West Bank.

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