Ex-Netanyahu ally Hanegbi, longtime Likud stalwart, announces he’s voting for Liberman

Tzachi Hanegbi, a longtime ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Likud stalwart, announced Tuesday he will vote for an opposition party in next week’s elections, in a departure from his voting habits of almost 50 years.

In an opinion piece for Ynet news, Hanegbi, who served as a Likud MK and minister for over 25 years and as Netanyahu’s national security adviser between 2023 and 2025, said he will vote for Avgidor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party on October 27.

“For some time now, voices within [the right] that I find jarring have been growing louder, and not all those who represent it reflect the principles I believe in,” Hanegbi wrote.

“I am not part of the messianic right. Nor am I part of the racist right. Nor am I part of a right wing that holds its ideological opponents in contempt,” he wrote, referring to the actions and opinions of Netanyahu’s far-right governing coalition. “Nor am I part of a right wing that remains silent in the face of waves of nationalist crime, much less one that downplays their far-reaching implications. Nor do I identify with the desire to dismantle law enforcement institutions in order to ‘strengthen governance.'”

“Above all,” the former security adviser continued, “I struggle to understand how right-wingers justify their support for granting a sweeping exemption from military and civilian service to a large segment of the population. As long as right-wing parties turn a blind eye to their political partners calling for IDF draft notices to be flushed down the toilet and shouting themselves hoarse, ‘We will die rather than enlist!’, I want nothing to do with them.”

Hanegbi was abruptly dismissed by Netanyahu in October 2025 amid reported disagreements over Gaza war policy, after years as one of the premier’s key advisers.

He subsequently came out as a critic of Likud MK Boaz Bismuth’s proposed law to regulate ultra-Orthodox military conscription — largely by exempting them from service — which he warned would threaten Israel’s future.

It appeared from Hanegbi’s opinion piece that turning away from Likud was not a decision he was taking lightly.

“This will be the 18th time I participate in general elections for the Knesset,” he wrote, recalling casting his first ballot for Menachem Begin’s Likud while serving as a paratrooper in the IDF.

“Nearly five decades later, October 27 will be the first time in my life that I vote for a party with a candidate list that doesn’t include my mother’s name, Geula Cohen — whom I voted for during the first three elections — or my own name, as someone who ran in all 14 rounds of elections from then on.”

“So, while in all previous rounds I didn’t have any dilemma, this current election brings a new challenge,” he continued. “This time I really need to choose, and not just vote.”

Hanegbi explained his decision to vote for Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu by lauding the hawkish Soviet-born politician as one of the sole voices in the cabinet in the years prior to the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack to advocate for aggressive action against the terror group rather than a policy of containment.

“Regretfully, none of us — nor the cabinet members nor the heads of the security establishment — gave his warnings the weight they deserved,” he acknowledged, referring to Liberman’s stint as Netanyahu’s defense minister while Hanegbi was Israel’s regional cooperation minister.

He also applauded what he described as Liberman’s “less conventional aspects,” and commended him for overcoming “the stereotypes deeply embedded in Israeli society” about immigrants from the former USSR.

Liberman, he concluded, “strikes me as a leader who scrupulously protects national principles, while remaining a respectful and unifying right-wing voice.”

Hanegbi’s announcement was met with derision from Netanyahu’s allies and supporters, including at least one running on the Likud slate.

Jacob Bardugo, a political commentator for the pro-government Channel 14 network and number 11 on the Likud list, dismissed Hanegbi’s opinion piece as both “despicable” and “pathetic.”

Netanyahu, he claimed on Radio Galey Yisrael, pulled Hanegbi “out of his political grave” following the 2022 election by appointing him national security advisor after he fell short in the Likud primaries.

He dismissed Hanegbi as “someone who has no gratitude” and suggested he was merely “lashing out over being removed from his position.”