In opposition infighting, Liberman assails Eisenkot, says he’s secretly planning government with Netanyahu

Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman, one of the members of the Zionist bloc opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, launches an all-out attack on his own bloc’s frontrunner, Yashar party chief Gadi Eisenkot, accusing him of plotting to abandon the bloc and join forces with Netanyahu’s Likud to form a unity government after the election.

In a lengthy statement, Liberman brands Eisenkot “Gantz 2,” after Blue and White party head Benny Gantz, who was the main Netanyahu rival in successive elections before deciding twice to join Netanyahu-led governments.

Eisenkot had been Gantz’s No. 2 before quitting last year to form his own party, Yashar, which has become the biggest party in most opinion polls, making Eisenkot the main challenger to Netanyahu.

The four party heads in the Zionist anti-Netanyahu bloc — Eisenkot, Liberman, B’Yachad party chief Naftali Bennett and The Democrats party leader Yair Golan — met earlier this month and agreed not to attack each other until the October 27 election, instead focusing on making their collective bloc the biggest as possible.

But Liberman and Golan have clashed repeatedly since then, and Eisenkot has criticized Liberman and Bennett for refusing to back him as the bloc’s prime ministerial candidate. Recently, Eisenkot has steered his campaign toward portraying the race as between Likud and his own party, resulting in a boost for Yashar at the expense of his allies in recent polls, including a Times of Israel poll from yesterday.

Liberman says Eisenkot’s recent conduct goes against the understandings between the bloc heads, and asserts that there is a hidden motive.

“Gadi Eisenkot is planning the day after the election, and what interests him isn’t being the biggest party in the bloc, but being bigger than Likud and arriving in a position of power in the negotiations to form a government with Netanyahu,” he charges. Eisenkot has publicly ruled out collaborating with Netanyahu in the next government.

Liberman cites President Isaac Herzog’s reported initiative for a Netanyahu-Eisenkot government, a recent remark by a Likud minister not ruling out cooperation with the Yashar chief, US briefings stressing the need for unity, and Eisenkot’s alleged affinity to the ultra-Orthodox parties.

Liberman rejects accusations that he is undermining a potential Eisenkot-led government by refusing to join a coalition — even a temporary one — propped up by Arab-led parties, saying this has been an unwavering stance of his.

He says Eisenkot is leaving the minority government option on the table as leverage over Netanyahu to go first as premier in a potential power-sharing government.

Liberman accuses Eisenkot of being motivated by “personal ambition” rather than a genuine interest in change, and of being inexperienced in politics.