Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman laid out his conditions for joining a potential coalition in the Knesset headed by Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot, noting that he was willing to “be flexible and compromise” on the issue of the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) IDF draft law in an X/Twitter post.
“It is heartening to see the flexibility displayed by all political players regarding the issue of military conscription,” United Torah Judaism chairman Yakov Asher said in response to Liberman’s announcement. “It is painful to consider how much incitement and internal strife could have been avoided had this same flexibility been shown in recent years.”
A source in UTJ told Walla on Friday that Liberman’s announcement was not particularly shocking. “We’ve been hearing this talk ever since the elections,” the source said. “We’ve been speaking with people in the opposition bloc, and we understood where things were heading.”
“If they provide a [satisfactory] conscription law, we’ll go with them for sure,” the source continued. “We’re in politics, and in politics you do what needs to be done.”
Liberman also clarified that he has no intention of entering into a rotational prime ministership alongside Eisenkot, and that he believes that “the rotation mechanism... harms the proper management of the state and must be consigned to oblivion.”
Liberman establishes 'clear red lines' for Yisrael Beiteynu
In his X post on Friday, Liberman included a numbered list of “clear redlines” for his party. The first was to end Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s premiership. The second condition was that Israel would not “be dragged into additional elections.”
Finally, Liberman said that he would not support forming a government that relies on the Joint List or Ra’am abstaining from a vote in order to pass legislation.
This follows Channel 12’s Amit Segal reporting Thursday evening that Liberman had dropped his veto on forming a government with haredi parties, opening the door for the opposition bloc to begin discussions with UTJ.
The bloc reportedly discussed drafting a more lenient military conscription law, and the current assumption is that Shas would be forced to support the move as well, under pressure from Rabbi Dov Lando, one of UTJ’s most senior spiritual leaders.
The Channel 12 report also noted the possibility of a prime ministerial rotation agreement between Eisenkot and Liberman, but did not confirm that the parties had committed to it.
'You can't give up on the draft law': Dan Illouz leaves party in response to Liberman's announcement
Former MK Dan Illouz gave up his spot on the Yisrael Beytenu list on Friday after Liberman’s announcement.
“You can’t give up on the draft law,” Illouz wrote in a post on X.
Illouz entered the Yisrael Beytenu party list in the most recent round of elections, after leaving the Likud party due to ideological differences.
Illouz had the 10th spot on the Yisrael Beytenu party list, which would have left him out of the Knesset, as the party only secured seven mandates in the elections. He would only have gotten a seat in the Knesset if three party members above him on the list became ministers, per the Norwegian law.
Hendel: 'We won't give in'
Reservists-Economic Party leader Yoaz Hendel criticized Liberman’s statement, saying that “if you’re ready to promote mass draft-dodging for the sake of power, then what makes you any different from [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich and Netanyahu?”
“You said you didn’t need us; you said there must be no compromise on the state’s security, you promised you would take care of IDF reservists, [but] that’s the first thing you abandoned,” Hendel said.
“We won’t give in,” he said.
Liberman: Lapid for Knesset speaker is the right move, decision rests with him
In a later post, Liberman said that he supported appointing B’Yachad co-chairman Yair Lapid as the next Knesset speaker.
“I’m hearing various reports claiming that I no longer support Lapid’s appointment as Knesset speaker. I was glad to learn something about myself that I didn’t know,” he wrote.
“I still believe that appointing Lapid as Knesset speaker is the right move. But now the decision rests with Gadi, Naftali, and Yair himself.”
Shir Perets, Keshet Neev, and Yehuda Shlezinger contributed to this report.