Former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe “Bogey” Ya'alon warned that Yisrael Beiteinu leader MK Avigdor Lieberman could recommend Tzipi Livni for Prime Minister if the election ends in a draw between Likud and Kadima, which is led by Livni.
Speaking in a weekend public talk panel at Shoham, Ya'alon said: “If the election is a tie, Lieberman could decide to recommend that Livni create a government. Politics is the art of the impossible. Lieberman was in the coalition with Kadima and Labor,” he reminded the audience.
Ya'alon said that the difference between Likud's message regarding Arab citizens, unlike that of Lieberman, comes “from the head and not from the gut.” He said that “it is unacceptable that an Arab Knesset member was an advisor to Arafat and Abu Mazen” – a reference to MK Ahmed Tibi (Ra'am-Ta'al) – and “we need to make rules that will make this impossible.”
MK Lieberman participated in a similar public talk panel in Be'er Sheva and said that “Gaza continues to be Hamastan. The fire at the communities of the South continues and that is why we do not want a lull agreement in the next government, but a decisive victory.”
Channel 2's political pundit Amnon Abramovich estimated in a weekend newscast that Lieberman would spend the months and years after the election under police investigation and would eventually face charges. The channel's political reporter Rina Mazliach said that Lieberman's decision, whether to prefer Tzipi Livni or Binyamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister, could hinge on “which cabinet he feels more comfortable in as far as the investigation is concerned.”