Avigdor Lieberman
Avigdor LiebermanIsrael News Photo: (Flash 90)

Chances are growing that Yisrael Beiteinu will receive the Justice portfolio in Binyamin Netanyahu’s government, according to a report on Politico.co.il. In this case, the party will probably opt to keep Justice Minister Prof. Daniel Friedmann, a non-politician who was appointed by outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in the position he currently holds.

Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday on Army Radio: “I think Friedmann is a worthy and serious person, and the more they try to press me, the more I want him there.”

Lieberman also tore into Labor leader and Defense Minister Ehud Barak: “In order to remain Defense Minister, he would agree to have [radical Arab MK] Muhammad Barakeh join the coalition. He has no principles, everything is personal with him.”

Lieberman added that no portfolio is out of bounds for his party: “We are not ‘unfit for wedding’ [psulei chitun] for sitting in any government position. I can be as good a Foreign Minister as anyone else.”

In Jewish law, the term psulei chitun denotes people who cannot be wed in a Jewish ceremony. The matter of psulei chitun is a sensitive one for Lieberman’s party, which wants to enable non-Jews to marry each other in Israel.

Tensions between Barak and Lieberman flared in recent days, after Barak told his party members that former judges asked him to join the coalition in order to prevent Lieberman from reappointing Friedmann to the Justice Ministry.