Israel Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Liberman on Monday morning put on a political pundit’s hat and declared over his Facebook page that Blue&White and the two Haredi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, have already agreed to partner in forming a coalition government following the March 2, 2020 elections.
“The ‘eulogies’ of Netanyahu by the Haredi MKs on the day the Knesset was dispersed, and the mutual accolades between Blue&White and the Haredi parties leave no room for doubt,” Liberman argued: “There is a done deal between them to form a coalition after the next election.”
“The signs for this could be seen clearly in recent months,” Liberman continued. “When Blue&White went out of their way to keep [UTJ leader MK] Moshe Gafni as chairman of the finance committee, and completely supported transferring coalition funds to Shas and UTJ institutions, contrary to the position of Israel Beiteinu.”
Liberman then packed together a rather convincing body of evidence based on recent statements by religious and secular politicians:
“Add to that the statement made by MK Ya’akov Asher from UTJ: ‘Gantz is a worthy political partner,’ and [Shas chairman MK Aryeh] Deri who told Radio Kol Chai: ‘Blue&White were ready to give us everything.’ But the clearest evidence that the Haredi-Netanyahu bloc has collapsed in favor of a Haredi-Gantz bloc was the Blue&White statement yesterday which was quoted by Yuval Karni in Yedioth Ahronoth: ‘We will not run an anti-Haredi campaign … We will negotiate with the Haredim during the campaign,’ as well as [Blue&White] MK Elazar Stern’s remarks on Radio Jerusalem: ‘The word secular was fine for that time … it was true durimg the campaign, but I think what matters is not a temporary slogan, what matters is the party’s platform.”
“This is the same party that promised its voters before the last election to form a secular unity government, which would work against religious coercion,” Liberman noted, concluding with a short Israeli adage: Ve’hamevin yavin, meaning if you got it, you got it.
MK Ofer Shelah, a Blue&White spokesman, on Monday morning all but confirmed Liberman’s angry warning, telling Reshet Bet radio that the Likud’s loyal partners inside the rightwing 55 seat bloc have been experiencing buyer’s remorse and “regret their blind following of Netanyahu.”
Shelah added that “likewise, in the Likud there is a permeating recognition that Netanyahu’s holding of the altar’s horns (where according to tradition runaway felons cannot be touched as long as the keep holding – DI) and the fact that he failed twice to form a government, is paralyzing the political system in Israel.”
Shelah added that he hopes “that their recognition of their mistake will result in the establishment of a government in the next election.”