Liberman says not the time for elections as war drags on, but PM should quit

By Sam Sokol 22 January 2024, 3:26 pm

2 Edit

Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. 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 party chairman MK Avigdor Liberman leads a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, on January 22, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Avigdor Liberman dismisses the Labor party’s planned motion of no confidence in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, declaring during his Yisrael Beytenu party’s weekly faction meeting that the country “needs unity” and that elections are divisive.

“This is not the time for Jewish wars,” he says, adding that it is “impractical” to hold elections during wartime.

There are still two hundred thousand reservists in uniform, he argues, asking “do we set up a ballot box in Khan Younis?”

If the right wants to stay in power the only way is to ditch the prime minister, “otherwise it doesn’t matter when elections are held — the right will enter the opposition,” he says, adding that if Netanyahu “had an ounce of conscience and was able to take responsibility, he would resign.”

“Any reasonable person would resign on their own after the October 7 failure.”