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Netanyahu, Israel, attempts to poach an old rival's "Russian vote"

 


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Jerusalem (AFP)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plays his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an effort to steal key votes in Monday's elections, but analysts are skeptical that he will surpass him.

Israel goes to the polls for the third time in less than a year after blocked polls last April and September.

Netanyahu seeks to woo supporters of former ally Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the secular nationalist party Yisrael Beiteinu, born in Moldova and whose base of support comes largely from the former Soviet Union.

Lieberman emerged as a kingmaker after last year's election, but ultimately refused to support Netanyahu or his centrist rival Benny Gantz.

Prime Minister in distress hopes that a visit to Moscow and a warm welcome from Putin in Jerusalem early this year, as well as election materials in Russian, will help him muster the 61 seats needed to form a viable coalition.

But Zeev Khanin, professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv, said Netanyahu's attempts to get comfortable with Putin and capture the "Russian vote" were not working not.

"Russian immigrants are Israelis," he said, and although they are attached to Russian culture, "they do not support Putin or any other Russian politician."

Over a million Jews from the former Soviet Union have emigrated to Israel since the 1990s and now represent 12% of the electorate.

Lieberman’s list garnered 40.2% of Russian-speaking votes in last April’s vote, while Netanyahu’s Likud won 26.7%, according to a study by Khanin.

– "Racist diatribes" –

Lieberman, a former Netanyahu minister, has long been a spokesperson for the former Soviet community in Israel.

He is against public funding of Talmudic Jewish schools and wants immigrants from the former USSR to be able to receive a pension in Israel.

His list won eight of 120 seats in the Israeli parliament last September, including six of these immigrants among the top 10 names in his ticket.

He also used campaign materials in Russian to reach older immigrants who don't always speak Hebrew.

Alex Grinberg, a political commentator from Russia, said that two categories of Russian immigrants voted for Lieberman.

"The older ones who don't understand Hebrew, but especially the younger ones, who grew up in Israel and feel like second-class citizens," he said.

Earlier this year, a scandal broke out after Yitzhak Yossef, the Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel, who is close to the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, said that some of the immigrants were "non-Jews, some communists" who "hate religion".

Lieberman refused to join a coalition with Shas and another ultra-Orthodox party, United Torah Judaism, who are allies of Netanyahu's right-wing Likud.

"Racist diatribes against this (ex-Soviet) community from some ultra-Orthodox rabbis have provoked a reaction that Lieberman is using in his campaign," said Grinberg.

– The Putin factor –

Likud has election posters in Russian, and Netanyahu has played his "strong friendship" with the Russian president.

He hosted Putin in Jerusalem in January, along with other foreign leaders, for the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviet Red Army.

The couple inaugurated a monument commemorating the citizens and defenders of Leningrad during the city's Nazi siege.

"The (Leningrad) blockade and the Holocaust are things that cannot be compared to anything else," said Putin at the time.

More than 600,000 people died of hunger during the siege, including tens of thousands of Jewish residents, some of whom were also members of the Soviet army.

Netanyahu also used his relationship with Putin in the case of an American-Israeli woman arrested in Russia last year and imprisoned for drug trafficking.

Moscow released her shortly before Netanyahu met Putin in the Kremlin in late January.

But if all this will be enough to convince voters to abandon Lieberman, that is far from certain.

According to academic Khanin, Yisrael Beiteinu's campaign responds to the social and security concerns of Lieberman voters, especially with regard to pensions.

"The core of Lieberman's voters will remain loyal to him, despite Netanyahu's efforts," he said.

Political commentator Grinberg was also skeptical. "The main political agenda of Russian voters is integration into Israeli society," he said.

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