Avigdor Liberman says Netanyahu offered him defense minister post
Hawkish opposition figure says he won’t accept role in beleaguered government, calls for elections now
Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman said on Sunday that he had been approached with a proposal that he take over the post of defense minister, currently held by MK Yoav Gallant, as the Netanyahu government faces threats of dissolution from all directions.
The proposal came from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu inner circle and with the prime minister’s knowledge, claimed Liberman, whose right-wing party is in the opposition. Netanyahu’s Likud party denied that any such proposal had been made.
Gallant, the current defense minister, gave a speech last month criticizing Netanyahu and accusing him of dithering on plans for a post-Hamas government in Gaza. The prime minister has long sought his ouster.
Speaking to the Ynet news site, Liberman asserted that he would not accept such an offer, stating unequivocally that the country needs elections at this time. “It isn’t possible to fix it anymore,” the MK said.
He noted that he had already served as defense minister under Netanyahu, from 2016 to 2018, and said he had quit “because of the unwillingness to deal with threats in a real way.”
As defense minister in 2016, Liberman drafted an 11-page document, parts of which were shared by Israeli media following Hamas’s October 7 attack, warning of possible plans by terror group to burst through the border, overrun communities in southern Israel, slaughter residents and take hostages.
Liberman resigned his post in 2018 following a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, calling the deal “a capitulation to terror” and telling reporters at the time, “What we are doing right now is buying quiet for a heavy price, with no long-term plan to reduce violence toward us.”
Speaking to Ynet on Sunday, Liberman said, “As long as Netanyahu is at the top of the pyramid, there is no chance to restore things. The government isn’t dealing with anything — neither the economy nor security — and is only concerned with political survival.”
Liberman — who met last week with Opposition Leader Yair Lapid and Gideon Sa’ar, who chairs the right-wing opposition party New Hope — said that the three had formed a “war room” that aims to topple the current government. He called on MK Benny Gantz, a minister without portfolio and member of the war cabinet, to leave the government, saying he was “being used as a fig leaf.”
Gantz said in May that he would leave the government by June 8 if Netanyahu does not by then “formulate and approve a plan of action” to return the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, topple and replace the terror group, return Israeli evacuees to their home in the south and north, advance normalization with Saudi Arabia, and adopt a framework for universal national service.
Liberman addressed the last issue, one he has pressed throughout his career: “Our first big test will be the draft exemption law,” he said, referring to proposed legislation that would lower the maximum age at which ultra-Orthodox Israelis need to receive an exemption from military service to pursue religious studies. “If the bill passes, it will tear apart Israeli society.”
“I don’t think they’ll have a majority,” Liberman said, adding, “We are speaking and meeting not only with people from Likud but also members of Knesset from other parties in the coalition.”
Liberman called on non-governmental bodies, such as the Histadrut labor federation, to be active in the campaign for new elections. Arnon Bar-David, the head of the Histadrut, called last month for “agreed-upon elections that will stop the chaos in the State of Israel,” but declined to call for a general strike.
“I really hope that the Histadrut will join the fight, because [the government] must fall, right now,” Liberman said. “We have to understand that this government is leading us to the abyss, and we must stop them.”
