‘The tales of Ali Bibi’ and ‘The Knight at the Crossroads’: Avigdor Lieberman’s campaign in the September 2019 elections

Abstract

ABSTRACT The September 2019 elections ended up as a race for the Russian vote. Avigdor Lieberman, founding chairman of the Israel Beitenu party, launched a two-pronged, bilingual campaign in which the party’s Hebrew-language Facebook page presented a trilogy titled ‘The Tales of Ali Bibi’, while its Russian-language website posted a video titled ‘The Knight at the Crossroads’. This article analyzes these videos’ overt and covert folkloric themes and immigrant motifs and their attempt to transmit Lieberman’s encrypted political messages. It shows that for all their differences, both Hebrew- and Russian-language videos presented a negative campaign that predominantly focused on political opponent(s)’ alleged flaws rather than on Lieberman’s virtues and/or achievements.