If you want to better understand the rise of Avigdor Lieberman, just look at this story about the newest member of Balad, one of the main Arab parties in the Knesset:

New Balad party MK Haneen Zuabi…has welcomed Iran’s growing influence on Palestinian affairs and praised Iran’s quest for a nuclear weapon as a means of offsetting Israel’s regional military edge.

This is actually a weak sauce compared to some of the stuff you can find on the highlight reel of Arab MK adoration of Hezbollah, Hamas, and the like. But very few people are aware that these kinds of statements are regularly made. Why? They do not fit inside the dominant journalistic approach, which usually attempts to minimize or excuse Arab rejectionism and racism. In this way, the popularity of Yisrael Beteinu is easily dismissed as an example of Israeli anti-pluralism, racism, or even fascism.

Thus, to the casual observer, the Lieberman phenomenon takes place in a vacuum, as if nothing has happened to catalyze the public’s receptivity to his message. Similarly, because the media rarely reports on the daily accretion of genocidal anti-Semitism among the Palestinians, or the public opinion polls showing a near-majority (and sometimes clear majority) opposition to the two-state solution (coupled with constant overwhelming support for terrorist attacks), Israeli skepticism of the peace process is dismissed as paranoia, stubbornness, or even rejection of the desire for peace itself.

It would be nice, but probably asking too much, if the reporters who breathlessly wrote of the coming era of the Lieberman Terror would stir themselves to report on the celebration of terrorism that has become a regular feature of Israeli Arab politics.