Liberman predicts Netanyahu will dissolve Knesset in Nov., says he’s meeting Bennett
Yisrael Beytenu chief expects elections in early 2025; says he’ll be sitting down with former PM again on Wednesday
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman predicted on Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would dissolve the Knesset and call for fresh elections in November.
“The prime minister intends to dissolve the Knesset himself in November. So far they have not started work on the state budget, which is supposed to be placed on the government’s table in August,” Liberman told a conference organized by the Calcalist business daily.
Liberman, who broke with Netanyahu several years ago, after decades of cooperation, also mused that holding elections prior to the end of the year could serve to postpone the prime minister’s pending testimony in his corruption trial.
“Since no budget is submitted, and the prime minister does not want to take the witness stand on December 2, I concluded that in November he will dissolve the Knesset himself, and we will go to the elections a few months later,” he said — adding that he “hope[s] we will manage to dissolve it sooner.”
Following Liberman’s statement, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s spokesman released a photo of him meeting with Netanyahu, the governor of the Bank of Israel and senior financial officials for a preliminary discussion of the 2025 budget.
Noting that several measures backed by the coalition have stalled in the Knesset and that last week it temporarily withdrew all legislation from the plenum’s agenda, Liberman said that “one way or another, we will get to the elections.”
The coalition’s failure to advance the legislative interests of some of its members has raised concerns among lawmakers that it may not be able to sustain itself.
Turning to the possibility of combining forces with other right-wing opposition parties, Liberman said that the key consideration going into elections is “how to get maximum seats.”
“We must make a sane and responsible decision how to deal with it, whether by combining all together, or by [running] several lists,” the former Netanyahu ally said.
Another hint at a Bennett comeback
According to a recent poll, if a new right-wing party were to be introduced that includes Liberman, former premier Naftali Bennett, ex-Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, New Hope chief Gideon Sa’ar, and former minister Ayelet Shaked, it would become the largest party with 27 seats, followed by Likud with 18 and National Unity with 16.
A significant plurality among the public, 34%, believe Bennett should head such a party, with 11% backing Liberman, 9% saying Cohen, 8% Sa’ar and 5% Shaked, the poll found. The other 33% said they don’t know.
Asked by The Times of Israel during his party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset on Monday afternoon if he is in touch with Bennett, Liberman replied that he had met with him as recently as two days ago and “will also meet with him this coming Wednesday.”
Liberman did not directly respond when asked if he plans on running together with Bennett in the next elections, merely saying that he is in touch with “everybody.”
Liberman tells the Times of Israel that he met with Bennett as recently as two days ago and will do so again on Wednesday pic.twitter.com/2DmkxM2q5t
— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) July 15, 2024
The Kan public broadcaster reported in May that Liberman and Bennett are in discussions regarding the creation of a right-wing union that could offer a “governing alternative” to Netanyahu.
Liberman’s remarks came shortly after Sa’ar told reporters that Bennett intends to return to politics.
Responding to a question from The Times of Israel last week, Sa’ar said that the last time he met with Bennett “was on the eve of the Shavuot holiday and I understand that that’s his plan.”
Bennett, who led the now-defunct Yamina party, has been out of office since the 2022 collapse of his diverse coalition government, which had ousted Netanyahu from the premiership after 12 consecutive years amid unprecedented political turmoil that included four national elections in three years.
Following Shavuot, which fell this year on the evening of June 11, Bennett appeared to hint at a return to politics, tweeting that it was possible to rebuild a broad unity coalition similar to the one he established with now-Opposition Leader Yair Lapid in 2021.
A spokesperson for Bennett declined to comment last week.
A new defense chief?
Addressing reporters on Monday afternoon, Sa’ar denied being contacted by Netanyahu to serve as defense minister, following a report that the prime minister has been mulling offering him the cabinet position currently held by Likud’s Yoav Gallant in order to bring him back into the coalition fold.
“It is not correct that I received an offer like that… to serve as defense minister,” Sa’ar stated when asked about the Kan report that Netanyahu had been discussing the possibility with his associates.
Sa’ar announced his party’s departure from the coalition in March after his demand to be admitted to the high-level war cabinet was denied. He has since harshly criticized the government’s management of the war in Gaza and has said he would be willing to make “concessions” to create a right-wing bloc opposing Netanyahu.
Last month, Liberman claimed that he had been approached with a proposal that he take over the post of defense minister. Netanyahu’s Likud party denied that any such proposal had been made.
Members of the government have called on Netanyahu several times to fire Gallant and last Sunday the prime minister was said to have accused him of working to topple the government during a heated cabinet meeting. Associates of Netanyahu have reportedly been deliberating Gallant’s possible ouster in the coming months, according to an unsourced Channel 12 report aired last week.
According to the report, Netanyahu’s inner circle considers Gallant a renegade within the coalition, due to positions that have often put him at odds with the premier, including on Haredi conscription, the war with Hamas in Gaza, and the handling of disagreements with the US administration.
Speaking with the pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 last week, Likud lawmaker Moshe Saada called on the prime minister to appoint either Liberman or Sa’ar as Gallant’s replacement.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
