Shaul Mofaz
Shaul MofazIsrael news photo: Flash 90

MK Shaul Mofaz (Kadima), Chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, called an abrupt halt to the committee's session Monday and called the Prime Minister a liar after learning of a headline that appeared on Arutz Sheva.

"Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is a liar," Mofaz told journalists. Shortly before, he cut short the committee's session after he was told that according to the top story on Arutz Sheva's Hebrew-language website, Mofaz had accused the Chief of Staff of not telling the truth about the defense budget.

"In the discussion we had here today," Mofaz told the press, "we asked Netanyahu to say what the 2012 budget goals are, and we also discussed questions that are connected to the defense budget… I told the Prime Minister that the processes were irregular. The Prime Minister said that there had been problems with transparency… by the Defense Ministry and the IDF and new goals had been set. I said that the IDF had never reported an untruth about the budget and that I trust then to report the truth in the budget."

"What the Prime Minister did is unprecedented," Mofaz accused. "He instructed his spokesmen to leak in the middle of the discussion that I had said that the Chief of Staff had reported an untruth in the matter of the defense budget. He did so brazenly, in the knowledge that he was lying, in a session that is recorded and transcribed, in the presence of the members of the committee plenum. This prime minister is a liar."

"I want to tell my friend Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz – our friendship is an intimate, high quality one. I say to him: continue to do things your way, continue to strengthen the IDF. The Prime Minister tried to create a false impression that I am accusing the Chief of Staff of lying. No! The Chief of Staff is telling the truth, the Prime Minister is lying."