Liberman to PM: ‘The Man From Caesarea Calls Me Leftist?’

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday night again slammed Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman, accusing him of teaming up with United Arab List head Ayden Oudeh to cause the government to fall. “There are those who present themselves as rightwing, but are actually working with the far left, and these people want to replace me,” said Netanyahu. “This is not going to happen,” he told Likud activists at a meeting.

In response, Liberman said Monday that Netanyahu’s accusations of Liberman’s consorting with leftists was “laughable. The man from Caesarea is calling someone from Nokdim in Gush Etzion a leftist. This is the same man who two weeks ago was practically begging the Labor party to join his coalition. This is the same Netanyahu who changes his mind on a daily basis, depending on the wind’s direction. Apparently the pressure of his tight government, the bad polls, and the fact that things don’t go his way is getting to him.”

Netanyahu’s accusations were a reiteration of complaints over the weekend that Liberman had conspired with Oudeh to back a bill that would limit the tenure of a prime minister to two terms. Netanyahu is currently on his fourth term as Prime Minister, and polls show that if elections are held tomorrow, he would take the office for a fifth time. If such a bill were implemented, Netanyahu could finish out his current term, as such bills usually have grandfather clauses – but he would be prevented from running again.

Liberman called the accusations “nonsense” and “disinformation” by Netanyahu against him. Speaking to Israel Radio, Liberman said that “the reports are a complete lie, another one of the libels that Netanyahu throws at me on a regular basis.”

In fact, Liberman and other Yisrael Beytenu MKs signed onto a bill proposed by Labor MK Merav Michaeli to restrict the Prime Minister’s term – but Liberman said that he had not been told that Oudeh and the UAL would be signed on to the bill as well. “They blindsided us, but that doesn’t mean we are working with UAL,” said Liberman. “Although anything that can remove this terrible government is a goal to be lauded.”