Liberman says coalition and opposition close to agreement, he calls it ‘bad for the State of Israel’
Gantz denies any pending agreement, Liberman says ‘no chance’ he will join Netanyahu
Yisrael Beytenu party head Avigdor Liberman announced today that he expects an agreement between Israel’s coalition and opposition to be announced this week, possibly as early as Wednesday.
“The expected agreement in the President's Residence, in my estimation, will be published immediately after the appointment of the Judicial Selection Committee on Wednesday, after [MK] Karin Elharrar is elected to be a member of the committee. I believe that both of the sides will announce that they have reached an agreement,” Liberman told his party at a meeting.
“This agreement is bad for the State of Israel,” Liberman added, who represents the opposition.
The Knesset member claimed that the agreement would reportedly allow Shas party leader Aryeh Deri to return to power by overturning the “reasonableness clause.”
“The heart of the agreement is the return of [Shas leader] Deri to the government, with the support of Gantz and Lapid,” Liberman claimed.
Shortly after his speech, National Unity party leader Benny Gantz denied that there is an agreement currently pending between the two sides.
Gantz also reaffirmed that if no opposition representative is selected to the Judicial Selection Committee, his party will withdraw from negotiations.
Despite comments made by Liberman last week about possibly joining Netanyahu’s government coalition if the prime minister abandons his partnership with the ultra-Orthodox party members, today he emphatically confirmed that he will not do so.
“There is no chance that we will be part of a Netanyahu coalition. The sky will fall on the earth before that happens,” Liberman said, adding that Netanyahu chose to partner with the religious far right.
“No one pushed him. This is the option he chose.”
However, the Liberman did say he is willing to join “a Zionist and liberal coalition, including the Likud movement and without the Orthodox.”
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
