Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon
Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alonFlash 90

Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon took part Thursday in the Haaretz conference where he attacked Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Ya'alon, a senior leader of the Blue and White party, said he did not call Netanyahu a traitor, but claimed that the submarine affair "could deteriorate into treason."

In a conversation with Haaretz's military commentator, Amos Harel, Ya'alon was asked whether there were secrets that even the defense minister and the IDF chief of staff do not know about. "I have never heard of such a thing," Ya'alon answered.

When asked if he was right-wing, Ya'alon answered : "I am a security man like Rabin. I supported Oslo. I am a man of peace. Today someone who criticizes Bibi is a leftist. This is a manipulation to create a rift between right and left, between Arabs and Jews, between Ashkenazim and Mizrachim."

"Bibi has been stuck there for 10 years," he said. "We need honest leadership that will work for the citizens, not for itself." Referring to the situation in the south, Ya'alon said: "We are not pushing Netanyahu to the wall and we are behaving in a statesmanlike manner, not like his colleagues in the cabinet."