Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday strongly criticized Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman in an interview with the Knesset Channel.
Responding to Liberman’s comment on Saturday that he does not rule out a rotation deal with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Smotrich said, "What is amazing is not Liberman at all, what is amazing is the media taking this seriously. I have a son who will be attending first grade next year and he is fit to be Prime Minister much more than Liberman."
"Liberman has been in politics for 30 years, he has made no mark, the man did not build a single home, didn’t pave a single road, passed no reforms and enacted no laws. For 30 years the man has been thinking only about himself, about his irresponsible political manipulations,” he continued.
"In a normal and corrected state, such a joke that claims itself to be Prime Minister would have been met with laughter, not to mention ignored by the media. The feeling is that because he challenges Netanyahu then everything is allowed and even such jokes can be taken seriously. The man is irresponsible and he caused the State of Israel to go to repeat elections,” said Smotrich.
Asked about the split on the right, which eventually led to an independent run of Otzma Yehudit, Smotrich said, "Obviously Ben Gvir is to blame. We have been begging Otzma’s people for a month and a half to come and sign a deal, even before we signed with the New Right. They would have been part of the package deal. They refused. They chose to fight, be offended and sling mud."
On Ben Gvir's claims that Bennett torpedoed an alliance, Minister Smotrich said, "Let Ben Gvir explain why, for a month and a half, I begged him to approve the existing agreement we had in the United Right. Then we even offered him an improvement and of course he would have gotten everything he wanted as part of the bigger alliance with the New Right. Let him explain why he refused to sign for a month and a half."