Liberman says his goal for upcoming national election is to become prime minister

Avigdor Liberman declares that he wants to be the next prime minister, despite the fact that his Yisrael Beytenu party is consistently polling around eight or nine seats — significantly behind former prime minister Naftali Bennett and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Together slate, which received 26 mandates in a recent Zman Yisrael poll.

Speaking with Army Radio, Liberman says he has two goals for the upcoming election: “to replace the October 7 government” and “to be prime minister.”

“We will know how to get along after the election, and I think we proved that in the ‘government of change’ as well [that] it is not necessarily the leader of the largest party who is chosen to be prime minister,” he says, referring to the short-lived Bennett-Lapid government, which he also joined.

Liberman rules out using the threat of turning to Netanyahu and offering to back him in exchange for a rotation in the Prime Minister’s Office in negotiations with other opposition bloc parties, stating that “as far as I’m concerned, even if the world turns upside down” Netanyahu cannot hold any role in the next government.

Speaking with the Maariv daily, Bennett says that “Liberman has proven himself to be a serious and responsible partner. In my opinion, he was a very good minister in my government, which was an excellent government. I am not worried that Liberman will put his ego above the state. I trust Liberman to put the state above his ego.”

Asked by Army Radio about the possibility of a merger with Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot, Liberman says there are “fundamental gaps” which “need to be cleared up before a merger,” and that his party is “unwilling to give up even a millimeter on the full conscription law.”