Liberman takes on Netanyahu

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman says “Netanyahu is neither right nor left but rather Mr. Zigzag, the world champion in zigzagging. Yisrael Beytenu has no problem with Likud, we have a big problem with Netanyahu. And not only us: Ask Benny Begin, Yuval Steinitz and Nir Barkat.”

The right wing party leader is referring to two Likud members and the mayor of Jerusalem, all of whom could be seen to be somehow disappointed by the results of the long and exhausting process of the establishment of the current government.

Liberman’s decision last month to refrain from joining the Netanyahu coalition left him in an awkward position: as the leader of an opposition party which is more right wing than most coalition parties.

His ad hominem attack on Netanyahu during a faction meeting today seems to come in retaliation for things Netantyahu said on Sunday: “Liberman’s voters would not have elected him if they knew he would oppose a nationalist [right-leaning] government.”

Liberman, according to Ynet, fumes: “I heard the prime minister refer to Yisrael Beytenu’s decision not to join the current coalition and his saying that if Yisrael Beytenu voters knew about this in advance we would not get even one percent of the votes that supported us. He only forgot that the real reason Yisrael Beytenu is not a member of the coalition is that he, Benjamin Netanyahu, abandoned the nationalist camp and no longer belongs in the Israeli right wing.”