Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Lieberman, Bibi Meet To Work Through Differences

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met to hash out their differences.

“The meeting was conducted in a positive spirit, in an effort to strengthen cooperation on all matters,” read a statement issued from the Prime Minister’s office following the two hour meeting which ended late Monday evening.

The leaders reportedly discussed disagreements about allocations to Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu ministers’ departments as part of the biennial budget and the controversial conversion bill sponsored by Lieberman’s party.

No details about the meeting were released.

During a news conference Monday prior to the meeting, Lieberman said his party will not leave the government, despite several disagreements.

Lieberman criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not having more consideration for his largest coalition partner. With 15 seats, Yisrael Beiteinu is the second largest party in Netanyahu’s coalition.

The downward spiral in relations between the two leaders began with Netanyahu’s decision to send Minister of Trade, Industry and Labor Benjamin Ben-Eliezer to Turkey for a meeting with its foreign minister, and continued in recent days with the state budget, the appointment of an interim United Nations envoy and a prospective conversion measure proposed by Lieberman’s party to fulfill an election promise to its supporters.

“We won’t quit the government, but we also have no intention of surrendering,” Lieberman told reporters.

“The party that most supports the government should not be the last considered in regards to the budget,” he said, referring to cuts in the departments headed by Yisrael Beiteinu ministers.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.