Liberman Says Proud of Rejecting Coalition Deal

YERUSHALAYIM – Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman boasted on Tuesday about rejecting desperate offers from the Likud to join in a right-wing coalition to stave off elections.

“We have been offered every possible role in the coalition and in the Knesset — all this, only if we agree to a narrow government, contrary to our promise to voters. Needless to say, we rejected all of these suggestions outright,” Liberman wrote online.

“I am proud of my colleagues in the party. We are the only party in the country capable of making decisions solely for the benefit of the State of Israel, and in stark contrast to its political and electoral interests,” he claimed.

While politicians on the right blame Liberman’s intransigence and personal hostility to PM Netanyahu and the chareidim for the unprecedented impasse, he took the opportunity to heap more blame on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz.

“If a government is not formed in the next 24 hours, it is solely because the leaders of the two major parties, Likud and Blue and White, were unwilling to set aside their egos and could not reach an agreement on who will serve first as prime minister and when there will be a rotation,” he said.

On Monday, Netanyahu publicly appealed to Liberman to enter negotiations with his Likud party.

“I call on Avigdor Liberman to enter into accelerated negotiations in the 48 hours left to establish a broad, strong unity government for Israel,” Netanyahu said.

Meanwhile, with only a few hours before the midnight deadline Wednesday, a bill for the dissolution of the 22nd Knesset was filed jointly by the leaders of the negotiating teams, MK Avi Nissenkorn of Blue and White and MK Mickey Zohar of Likud, Arutz Sheva reported.