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Photo: Gil Yohanon, Mark Israel
Photo: Gil Yohanon, Mark Israel
Photo: Gil Yohanon, Mark Israel

Netanyahu vs. Lieberman in rightist rivalry

PM: Lieberman wanted to destroy me by joining the left; Yisrael Beiteinu: Netanyahu doesn't speak for nation's right.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman went on the offensive against one another on Sunday evening, both blaming the other of poorly representing the political right whose voters handed an election victory to Netanyahu's Likud in March.

 

 

The Prime Minister initiated the verbal conflict Sunday at a meeting with central government activists at Netanyahu's residence where he claimed that during coalition negotiations, Lieberman was interested in joining a leftist government in order to overthrow Netanyahu. "Lieberman's voters would not have voted for him at all if they knew that he would go against a national government," said the Prime Minister.

 

Photo: Gil Yohanon, Mark Israel (Photo: Gil Yohanon, Mark Israel)
Photo: Gil Yohanon, Mark Israel
 

 

Yisrael Beiteinu wasted little time in drafting a response which read, "Netanyahu is not allowed to speak in the name of the right or the national camp."

 

A Netanyahu ally and Foreign Minister in the previous government, Lieberman pulled out of coalition agreements after March's elections, saying that he had chosen 'principles over portfolios'.

 

Lieberman's desertion left Netanyahu and the new right-wing coalition with only the thinnest majority possible in the Knesset for a ruling coalition. Lacking Yisrael Beiteinu's MKs in Israel's 24th government, Netanyahu was forced to concede several senior government portfolios to Naftali Bennett's Jewish Home party.

 

Sunday's meeting, in which Netanyahu made his comments questioning Lieberman's loyalty to the right, was one of a series of conferences the Prime Minister is planning for the near future to discuss reforming the electoral system ahead of the next elections.

 


פרסום ראשון: 06.01.15, 09:19
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