Members of Israel’s opposition should remain focused on toppling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, rather than argue over who among them should be the next leader, MK Avigdor Liberman, chairman of Yisrael Beytenu, said in an interview with 103FM on Sunday.
His comment came after Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot stated that leaders of smaller parties in the opposition bloc should not insist on seeking the premiership.
"I think [Eisenkot] is missing the main point, and all of us need to focus on one objective: bringing down the draft-dodgers' alliance and the October 7 massacre government," Liberman said.
"All this talk about who should be prime minister? Come on, you're talking about it too, and you're saying that you also want to be, and deserve to be, prime minister."
Liberman claimed Eisenkot was falling into Netanyahu’s “trap,” claiming the prime minister wants opposition leaders to “spend all our time talking about who's first, who's second, and what coalition there will be, instead of talking about the substance."
Ra'am cannot be a coalition partner, Likud is ultra-Orthodox-lite
Liberman argued that focusing on such issues effectively turns opposition parties into campaigners for Likud, and noted that he has not been able to align himself with the party since it became “a light ultra-Orthodox party.”
“That's not somewhere I intend to work," he said.
Asked whether the United Arab List (Ra'am) could eventually become part of the opposition bloc, Liberman said the answer was no, and that after October 7, “Ra'am cannot be a partner in the coalition, not from within and not from outside, period."
He added that, in any case, his party would not need Abbas's support.
"The real news is that we're going to win by a landslide, and there will be a Hungarian scenario. The Zionist parties will secure an overwhelming majority, enough on our own, and we won't need anyone else," he said.
"We'll establish a truly statesmanlike and Zionist government, as opposed to a sectoral government, the draft-dodgers' alliance of Goldknopf, Deri, and Netanyahu."
On Iran: 'We've become a banana republic'
Liberman also addressed the ongoing crisis with Iran and US President Donald Trump's decision to cancel a planned strike on targets in the Islamic Republic.
"The Iranians are not willing to give up for even a second, not on their nuclear program, not on control of the Strait of Hormuz, and not on support for all their proxies across the region," he said. "They're simply buying time. We've become a banana republic. It can't be that Trump announces that we won't attack Iran, that everyone is speaking on our behalf."