Avigdor Lieberman: Israel’s new hard man

A former nightclub bouncer who courts controversy through his ultra-right-wing views on how to deal with the Palestinians - and makes even the tough-talking Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu look like a pussycat - could find himself at the head of Israel's third largest political party after next Tuesday's general election.

The latest opinion polls suggest that a dramatic surge in support for Avigdor Lieberman will sweep his Yisrael Beiteinu faction past both the governing Kadima coalition and the historically dominant Labour party in the 120-seat Knesset. In that event, he would not hesitate to demand a senior cabinet post from Netanyahu, who seems almost certain to become Israel's next prime minister.

It is not hard to imagine how the Obama administration would react to that: the burly, bearded Lieberman has publicly advocated bombing Tehran to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, denounced the one million Arabs with Israeli citizenship as 'fifth columnists' and, in November 2006, called for the execution of any Knesset member who dared to meet with Hamas. "World War II ended with the Nuremberg trials," he said. "The heads of the Nazi regime, along with their collaborators, were executed. I hope this will be the fate of the collaborators in [the Knesset]."

Lieberman’s crude but effective appeal gave him a cabinet post under Kadima

It is barely a decade since Lieberman, who emigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union at the age of 20 and now lives on a West Bank settlement, founded Yisrael Beiteinu ("Israel our Home") and began to force his way up the political ladder. A fiery orator who still speaks Hebrew with a thick Russian accent, he cut his teeth as an implacable opponent of concessions to the Palestinians - an early campaign slogan was 'No Arabs, No Terror'. Like many a demagogue, he has no time for inquisitive journalists: at one of his rallies, a couple of muscular "stewards" left me with a few bruises for asking awkward questions.

Lieberman's crude but effective (some would say racist) appeal to extreme nationalist voters carried him into the Knesset and in 2006 he was given a key cabinet post under Kadima: last year he resigned in protest over peace talks with the Palestinian Authority.

The prospect of being out-flanked by someone even more uncompromising than himself seems to have spooked Netanyahu (known in Israel as 'Bibi'). In a recent speech, his urgent message was that "I need a big Likud (majority) in order to lead