Prime Minister's Office Director-General Avigdor Lieberman, who resigned yesterday, will head for business and politics. Nathan Sharansky should pray that Lieberman will ultimately be tempted by the fat cheques Lev Levayev, David Appel and Ted Arison are waving under his nose.
Avigdor Lieberman is headed for business and politics. In just what proportions, nobody quite knows. If he becomes money-addicted, he will have to forgo his urge for vengeance and control. He can transform business into a political lever.
- Where will he work? For the last several months, two names have repeatedly cropped up. Lev Levayev and David Appel.
- Levayev, of Africa Israel, has for months had a vacant chair waiting for Avigdor Lieberman, as general manager of Africa Israel. Meanwhile, Zalman Stembler officiates there, as deputy GM. Yesterday evening, corridor talk in Africa Israel was of the imminent advent of the new manager.
- David Appel wants him too. For every conceivable reason. Appel, too, has a certain chair upon which Avigdor Lieberman may seat himself in comfort. For a long time, David Appel has been struggling in the face of heavy opposition at the district commission, which is not eager to give him permission to build 10,000 low-price, Ganei-Aviv style, residential units on the lands of Moshav Ginaton.
Avigdor Lieberman may get himself appointed manager of the Ginaton project, and take charge of construction permits and building. He may then, if so inclined, use the excellent contacts he has developed with Aryeh Deri, Interior minister Eli Suissa and Deputy Housing Minister Meir Porush, to become the steam-roller that will persuade the district commission to approve the project.
- Another possible job, not the focus of much public interest hitherto, is that of Chairman of Bank Hapoalim, under the aegis of the new controlling shareholder Ted Arison. Lieberman's appointment could cause a public shock wave which, however, will probably pass. Arison has been closely allied with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a long time. If that be the price of friendship, then Arison will let Avigdor Lieberman occupy the Chairman's seat, full or part time, at a high salary, being, like Emanuel Sharon, not actually involved in the bank.
- Where will he be active politically? Here, too, there are several options.
- As Chairman of the Likud Centre. The Likud Centre is due to convene in the next few weeks. Constitutionally, it is obliged to convene within 60 days of its conference. Hitherto, people thought Yisrael Katz would run for and be elected to that office. Today, it is believed that Katz is prepared to stand aside in favour of Lieberman.
The Centre, controlled by Lieberman, will elect him by a majority. To neutralise possible opposition, Lieberman himself may propose MK Uzi Landau as Chairman of the Political Bureau, thereby winning the hearts of Landau's supporters.
The job of Centre Chairman is unpaid. Compensation will come from another source, possibly from those named above.
- The community of former Soviet nationals is trembling in fear of upheavals. The Yisrael Ba'aliya movement fears that Lieberman is liable to make a move resulting in the split of the Knesset faction. They fear that Lieberman will cause a rift between the two cabinet ministers, movement leaders Nathan Sharansky and Yuli Edelstein, who will remain in the government, and some of the other five Knesset members of Yisrael Ba'aliya. Lieberman, it is feared, will organise them and transform them into Benjamin Netanyahu's Russian contingent, rendering him less dependent on his rebellious colleagues or on his social friends of Gesher.