Liberman says he won't back either Netanyahu or Gantz for PM

Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman says he won’t recommend that either Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Blue and White chief Benny Gantz should form the next government when his party holds talks this evening with President Reuven Rivlin.

Liberman rules out Netanyahu because of the premier’s agreement with ultra-Orthodox and “messianic” national-religious parties that they’ll only enter a government together under the Likud leader’s leadership.

The Yisrael Beytenu leader says on the other hand he can’t recommend Gantz because he’s “preserving the option” of forming a government with the ultra-Orthodox and/or the predominantly Arab Joint List.