Benjamin Netanyahu Launches Talks With Avigdor Liberman — Raises Pressure on Center Left
Image by Getty Images
Benjamin Netanyahu met on Wednesday with far-right politician Avigdor Lieberman in an effort to recruit him into Israel’s government, and political sources said the prime minister agreed to his demand to be appointed defense minister.
Netanyahu, who won a fourth term last year, governs by a majority of one in the 120-member Knesset, making his administration vulnerable to any falling-out among his political allies, so he is keen to add to their ranks.
It had appeared for the past several days that a course had been set for Isaac Herzog’s center-left Zionist Union party, which has 24 lawmakers, to agree on an alliance with Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud.
But in a surprise move, Lieberman, who heads the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party and previously served as foreign minister, convened a news conference on Wednesday to say he was ready to negotiate a pact with Netanyahu.
Lieberman, whose party has six Knesset seats, demanded the defense portfolio as well as new legislation that would impose capital punishment on Palestinians carrying out fatal attacks.
While saying Netanyahu acquiesced to Lieberman’s demand to be appointed defense minister, the political sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, noted that other issues remained unresolved and a deal has yet to be finalized.
If appointed, Lieberman would replace Moshe Yaalon, a Likud member and former military chief.
Yaalon has drawn sharp criticism from far-right partners in Netanyahu’s coalition for backing the army’s decision to level manslaughter charges against a soldier who shot dead a wounded Palestinian attacker in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in March.
Herzog froze his own negotiations with the prime minister when the meeting with Lieberman was announced.
Lieberman, who twice served as foreign minister in previous Netanyahu-led governments and has had testy relationship with the prime minister, has drawn headlines by repeatedly questioning the loyalty of Israel’s Arab minority.
In the past, he has proposed transferring some Arab towns to a future Palestinian state in return for Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Enlisting the Zionist Union, which has 24 legislators, would have given Netanyahu a comfortable political cushion and put a more moderate face on his right-wing government at a time when Israeli is grappling with mounting international calls to renew peace talks with the Palestinians that collapsed in 2014.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
