Opposition leader accuses Netanyahu, Liberman of a ‘covenant of corruption’

Zionist Union chairman Avi Gabbay slams what he calls a “covenant of corruption” between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman.

Speaking at the opening of his weekly faction meeting, Gabbay says that Netanyahu and Liberman have “played the rest of the coalition with spin and smokescreens.”

Netanyahu and leaders of his coalition’s ultra-Orthodox parties reached an agreement yesterday over a conscription bill, in last-ditch talks aimed at defusing a crisis that some have accused Liberman and Netanyahu of exacerbating in order to force early elections.

“Who would believe that all of the coalition parties would come begging to Netanyahu to ask him to stay prime minister with the huge weight of corruption accusation against him?” Gabbay asks. “Where is your backbone?”

Gabbay, whose Zionist Union party has languished in recent polls, says that he want elections but “will not let Netanyahu use us to set elections at a time that is good for him.”

Asked when he would prefer elections to take place, Gabbay refuses to give a specific preference but says that as the official opposition, “we of course want to replace the government as soon as possible.”

— Raoul Wootliff