Former defense minister Moshe "Boogie" Ya'alon visits the Mahane Yehuda Market, in Jerusalem, on Friday, April 25, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon attacked the current government as corrupt and extreme — pledging to challenge it in the next election.
Ya’alon told foreign reporters on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “didn’t demonstrate its responsibility” and had undermined the country’s democratic values.
The former Likud MK who plans to form a new political party to run in the next parliamentary elections, said that the extremist culture of “generating hatred for short-term political benefits” posed a greater challenge to Israel than Islamist terrorism.
Avigdor Liberman, right, speaks with Moshe Ya’alon in the Knesset in June 2009. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
Ya’alon served in the Likud from 2009 until March 17, when he officially resigned. He served as defense minister from 2013 until his preemptive resignation last year following a series of clashes with Netanyahu, most notably on the Elor Azaria case, in which an IDF soldier shot dead a disarmed, incapacitated Palestinian assailant.
Shortly after stepping down, Ya’alon’s position was filled by Yisrael Beiteinu head Avigdor Liberman.
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Since taking a break from politics though, the former defense minister has seen his stock take a considerable hit with his new party not even expected to pass the electoral threshold in a Channel 2 poll from earlier this week.
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