Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Israeli politician and former
Soviet dissident Natan Sharan-
sky on the Mount of Olives,
Jerusalem, October 2007.
(Oren Fixler / Flash90.)
and that evaluation is made on the main choice of the immigrant voters, not any exclusive
loyalty. Since 1996, the Soviet immigrant vote, though generally conservative, has been split
between mainstream and FSU immigrant communal parties.
Despite a history in Israel going back to 1977, no FSU immigrant communal party was able
to win any Knesset seats until 1996, when the Yisrael B'Aliya Party passed the 2 percent thresh-
old. The best-known political leader of this community at the time was Natan Sharansky,
although he eventually retired from politics.
Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home)
Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) was formed in 1999 when Avigdor Lieberman and other
FSU immigrant Likud supporters broke with Netanyahu in opposing territorial concessions
made in negotiations with the Palestinians. They were joined by a number of MKs of the Yis-
rael B'Aliya Party, who also opposed the concessions.
Though often portrayed as an extreme right-wing party, Yisrael Beiteinu is more com-
plex than that description indicates. Lieberman's land-exchange proposal is at the heart of the
party platform: to trade some largely Arab areas of Israel to a Palestinian state in exchange for
Jewish-populated areas in the West Bank. Although this approach appears to be hawkish, it
provides an opening for trading land for peace and is similar to land-swap proposals made by
the Labor Party.
Yisrael Beiteinu is widely known for another of Lieberman's controversial proposals — to
require Israeli Arabs take a loyalty oath — although he has never pushed this idea when in the
government. More immediately, Yisrael Beiteinu favors the separation of religion and state as
well as the institution of civil marriage, issues important to many FSU-origin Israelis who are
not religious or, in some cases, not considered Jewish according to Jewish law as interpreted
by the Rabbinate.
Despite the party's role as a communal vehicle for FSU immigrants, it never describes itself
as such. Many FSU immigrant voters prefer it this way, since to support an immigrant party
would make them feel less integrated into Israeli life. In the party's big breakthrough election in
