Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman in the Knesset on May 29. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
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Yisrael Beytenu Leader Avigdor Liberman clarified his party’s demands for joining the next coalition in an interview with Army Radio on Thursday, vowing that he would only join a unity government following the election.
Liberman said on Saturday that a “national emergency government” was needed, formed of Likud, Blue and White and Yisrael Beytenu, yet without the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties and the far-right Otzma Yehudit.
He took another step on Thursday, saying that he would not join a narrow government. His statement meant that even if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the center-right block only win the necessary 61 seats in the September 17 election, Liberman would not bring his party into the coalition.
“We will only sit in a national unity government,” Liberman said, “we will ask both large parties to promise to build a wide government. If we don’t receive that commitment from either of them, we will not recommend anyone [to President Reuven Rivlin].”
Liberman then invoked his banner issue of the elections, accusing Netanyahu of having continually “surrendered to the demands of the ultra-Orthodox parties, while adding that Blue and White leaders Benny Gantz and Moshe Ya’alon have also been groveling to them.
“Netanyahu wants a government led by Jewish Law,” Liberman said, saying that Yisrael Beytenu’s fight over the haredi enlistment law was now a symbolic battle to stop the encroachment of Jewish law into public life.
“The enlistment law has become a symbol, after the closing of grocery stores on Shabbat, and the Gesher Yehudit [pedestrian footbridge in Tel Aviv, and the Phoenicia [glass factory],” he continued.
The last government passed a law allowing the interior ministry to block municipalities from allowing increased commerce on Shabbat; the haredi political parties fought strongly to stop construction on Shabbat on the Gesher Yehudit footbridge; and some haredi communities boycotted the Phoenicia Glass Works bottle factory.
“That Netanyahu decided to capitulate to the haredim and was ready to pay a price and go to elections, this is something he really needs to be asked about. Why does he always capitulate to the haredim?” demanded Liberman
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