Liberman denies secret backchannel with Haredi parties, calls reports ‘lies’

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman denies reports that he maintained secret contacts with ultra-Orthodox parties in a bid to form a government, calling them “lies and fabrications” and accusing news outlets of running a coordinated campaign to smear him.

“Every report about mediators acting on my behalf… are lies and fabrications,” Liberman says in a post on X. He also denies reports of talks about freezing the law on arrests of ultra-Orthodox draft evaders, saying no such discussions took place “directly or indirectly.”

Channel 13 reported Saturday that Liberman and ultra-Orthodox parties had maintained a secret backchannel for months, despite publicly campaigning against one another. The network said Liberman associates, including Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion and political adviser Avi Abuhatzeira, handled the contacts and kept them secret from most Yisrael Beytenu members. The report did not cite sources.

Liberman says reporters did not provide details to substantiate the alleged meetings, such as when and where they took place or who attended.

“The reason is simple: they never happened,” he says.

Liberman accuses Israeli broadcasters of seeking to prepare the ground for “a minority government with Hamas supporters,” referring to the Arab parties, that he argues would last briefly before collapsing and enabling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form a government with a 70-seat coalition.

Liberman used to be a close political ally of the ultra-Orthodox parties, until he famously fell out with Netanyahu in 2019, refused to join the latter’s governments ever since, and became one of the most vocal political opponents of Haredi efforts to maintain military draft exemptions for most ultra-Orthodox males.