The corruption scandal encompassing many of the senior, strong and well-connected people in Yisrael Beiteinu, the party led by Avigdor Lieberman, hit the headlines about 80 days before the critical day – March 17. Just as Hollywood likes to release movies ahead of Christmas, in these parts, criminal affairs related to Lieberman and his party always surface on the eve of an election. In campaign terms, two and a half months is an eternity. The dust will settle, the detainees will be released, the investigation will continue, and indictments are unlikely to be handed down before the election. Still, it’s clear even now that the blow sustained by Lieberman’s party will stigmatize it and leave it with a bruise that won’t heal by voting day.

It’s still too soon to say how damaging the blow will be. But quite possibly, December 24, 2014, will go down as the most significant day of the election campaign. Concrete damage, both electoral and in terms of image, inflicted on Yisrael Beiteinu, which even before the latest events was barely polling 10 seats in the surveys, could generate shockwaves that will affect not only the party itself but other areas of the political map – particularly the center-left, which is thrumming in anticipation of a change of government.

Read the article in full at Haaretz.