Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman this morning (Sunday) dismissed comments by Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot, who said that the leaders of smaller parties in the opposition bloc should not insist on becoming prime minister. Speaking in an interview with Gideon Oko and Amichai Atali on Radio 103FM, Liberman said the discussion misses the main issue.
"I think Gadi is missing the central objective here. We all need to focus on one goal-to bring down the alliance of draft evaders and the October 7 government," Liberman said. He added that Eisenkot himself has spoken about the possibility of serving as prime minister, making the issue irrelevant at this stage.
According to Liberman, the debate over who should lead the government ultimately serves Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Both you and Gadi are falling right into Netanyahu's trap. He wants us to keep talking about who will be first and who will be second instead of dealing with the substance," he said.
Liberman added that the opposition's internal disputes only benefit Likud. When asked about his own past in the party, where he previously served as director-general, he replied: "Today's Likud has become Mahal-a Haredi-lite party. That's not a place where I intend to work."
Addressing the possibility of cooperating with the Ra'am party, Liberman categorically rejected the idea. "After October 7, Ra'am cannot be part of the coalition-neither from within nor from outside. Absolutely not," he said.
He argued that such cooperation would not be necessary in any case. "The real news is that we will win by a large margin, and we'll have a Hungarian-style scenario. The Zionist parties will secure an overwhelming majority, and we won't need anyone else. We'll establish a statesmanlike, Zionist government, unlike the sectoral government of the alliance of draft evaders-Goldknopf, Deri, and Netanyahu."
Liberman also addressed the crisis with Iran and reports that a planned American strike had been canceled. "The Iranians are not willing to give up-not even for a moment-on their nuclear program, control of the Strait of Hormuz, or support for their regional proxies. They're simply buying time," he said.
He criticized the handling of the American decisions, adding: "We've become a banana republic. It can't be that Trump announces we won't strike Iran, and everyone speaks on our behalf."