Avigdor Liberman
Avigdor LibermanYisrael Beytenu spokeperson

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman on Friday declared his goal in the next election: To prevent Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu from heading the next government.

"Netanyahu must be prevented from getting 61 seats, this is necessary for Israel," Liberman told Kan 11 News in an interview.

"When you look at 35 ministers, all the fights - it's cheaper for the state to go to elections," Liberman said. "I would have preferred it if it were possible to form a government in the current Knesset, but I am not deceiving myself. I see the exchange of blows between Gantz and Lapid, between everyone there."

Liberman downplayed the idea that Yamina chairman Naftali Bennett would ultimately help in preventing Netanyahu from forming a government.

"The problem with Bennett is that he will eventually go with Netanyahu. Anyone who votes for Yamina should understand that in the end, Yamina is a coalition of [Bezalel] Smotrich, [Aryeh] Deri, [Yaakov] Litzman and Netanyahu," he said.

The former Defense Minister criticized Netanyahu for hiding information from senior members of the defense establishment, saying, "There is an attempt to completely neutralize the IDF, the defense establishment, as if they do not exist. Even when you need test swabs, it is the Mossad that brings them. When there is a delegation to the Gulf, the Foreign Ministry is not responsible for it."

In light of the discussions among the bloc that opposes Netanyahu regarding the person who should head that bloc, Liberman said that he does not put his personal interests above the political ones.

"I advise everyone not to consider their personal ambitions and not just think about the upcoming elections but about the country. In terms of the record, the background, I have more than anyone else in the political system but I do not put ambitions first," he said.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)