Liberman urges anti-Netanyahu voters not to waste ballots on smaller parties

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman urges voters to back only one of the four parties in the “serving bloc,” a grouping of Zionist opposition parties that advocate military service for ultra-Orthodox men, a day after accusing fellow opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot of seeking to form a government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the October 27 election.

“I call on my colleagues in the serving bloc to focus on just two messages,” Liberman writes in a post on X, calling for voter turnout to exceed 76% and urging Israelis to “vote only for one of the four parties in the bloc, and not waste votes on fringe parties.”

The appeal comes a day after Liberman accused Eisenkot, whose Yashar party leads the opposition bloc in polls, of trying to siphon votes from allied parties to strengthen his position ahead of potential coalition negotiations with Netanyahu.

Eisenkot, who has publicly ruled out forming a government with Netanyahu, dismissed the accusations as a “spin” and told Israelis to “not be rattled by the background noise,” saying he seeks “a clear majority of more than 61 Zionist seats for change.”