Liberman says his goal for the upcoming election is to become prime minister

Hawkish MK’s Yisrael Beytenu party polls at only around 9 seats; however, he rules out threatening to join Netanyahu for leverage

MK Avigdor Liberman said Tuesday that he wants to be Israel’s next prime minister, even though his Yisrael Beytenu party is consistently polling far behind the Together slate, led by former prime minister Naftali Bennett and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid.

If elections were held today, Yisrael Beytenu is projected to win some nine seats in the 120-seat Knesset, while Together would receive 24, according to a poll last week by Zman Yisrael, The Times of Israel’s Hebrew sister-site.

Speaking with Army Radio, Liberman said he had two goals for the upcoming election: “To replace the October 7 government” and “to be prime minister.”

“We will know how to get along after the election, and I think we proved in the ‘government of change’ as well [that] it is not necessarily the leader of the largest party who is chosen to be prime minister,” he said, referring to the short-lived Bennett-Lapid government, which he also joined.

That government, formed in 2021 and dissolved in 2022, was led first by Bennett, then by Lapid, despite the former’s Yamina party winning just seven seats compared to the latter’s Yesh Atid, which won 17. Both parties were dwarfed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, which won 30 seats but failed to translate that showing into a governing coalition.

Liberman clarified that he wouldn’t threaten to join Netanyahu in a rotation agreement as a way to force other opposition parties to yield, saying that “as far as I’m concerned, even if the world turns upside down,” Netanyahu cannot hold any role in the next government.

Speaking with the Maariv daily, Bennett said that “Liberman has proven himself to be a serious and responsible partner. In my opinion, he was a very good minister in my government, which was an excellent government. I am not worried that Liberman will put his ego above the state. I trust Liberman to put the state above his ego.”

Asked by Army Radio about the possibility of a merger with Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot, Liberman said there were “fundamental gaps” that “need to be cleared up before a merger.”

Liberman said Yisrael Beytenu was “unwilling to give up even a millimeter on the full conscription law,” referring to the effort to draft ultra-Orthodox men, who currently enjoy broad de facto exemptions from mandatory military service.

Surveys in recent weeks indicated that a union between the centrist, recently formed Yashar and the hawkish Yisrael Beytenu could yield a combined 25 seats, bringing it neck-and-neck with Together.

The two party chiefs said earlier this month that they were not joining as of yet, but that they intended to “deepen the coalition between the parties in order to lead the ‘coalition of those who serve [in the military]’ to victory and establish a Zionist, statesmanlike government.”

Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted, despite a persistent IDF manpower shortage. The ultra-Orthodox parties have long demanded a law enshrining their communities’ exemption from military service.

The coalition’s so-called “draft bill” — which would ostensibly increase military conscription in the Haredi community, but ultimately enshrines continued exemptions for full-time yeshiva students — is widely seen as legally iffy and loophole-laden and has generated intense resistance even among members of Netanyahu’s coalition.

Roiled by that controversy, the Knesset appears poised to dissolve early, with a bill to do so slated for its preliminary reading on Wednesday. Elections must be held, in any event, by October. Polls consistently show the current coalition failing to reach a majority in the 120-seat Knesset, winning some 53 seats, while the Zionist, anti-Netanyahu bloc hovers around 57 seats.

The remaining roughly 10 seats would be won by Arab-majority parties, including the Islamist Ra’am, which was part of the Bennett-Lapid government, but which some members of the opposition have indicated they would oppose, including this time around.