Liberman: It's Shas or Us in Next Government

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman said Sunday that any party willing to sit in a government with Shas and United Torah Judaism is effectively giving up on partnering with him, drawing a clear red line as opposition parties weigh possible mergers ahead of the election.

“Whoever agrees to sit with Shas and United Torah Judaism is declaring in advance that he is giving up on Yisrael Beytenu,” Liberman told 103FM. “We will not sit with them.”

Liberman’s comments came after Yashar chairman Gadi Eisenkot declined to rule out sitting with the Haredi parties, saying during a visit to Tel Aviv’s Carmel Market that he would sit with anyone who strengthens the State of Israel. Haredi parties have also reportedly tightened their contacts with Eisenkot in recent days, seeing his proposed draft framework as more practical and more open to compromise than other opposition plans.

Liberman rejected that approach, saying opposition parties cannot campaign for four years against Haredi political demands and then bring Shas and UTJ back into the coalition after the election.

“You can’t hold the stick at both ends,” Liberman said. “There is no movie, no such thing, in which we sit with Shas and United Torah Judaism. The moment you do that, you give up in advance on everything you talked about in the opposition for four years.”

He said that if the Haredi parties are part of a coalition, proposals such as public transportation on Shabbat and core curriculum studies in Haredi schools will not move forward.

“What public transportation on Shabbat? What core studies, when they are sitting in the coalition? Clearly that won’t happen,” he said.

Liberman also addressed the possibility of running together with Eisenkot, saying any merger would require clear shared principles, common policy lines and real added value. He suggested that such moves should be made closer to the election rather than months in advance, taking an apparent swipe at Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, who recently launched their joint Together slate.

Liberman said the issue should not be reduced to personal alliances or political matchmaking. What matters, he argued, is what a party stands for and whether it will keep its commitments after the election.

“Unfortunately, everything has become personal and superficial, who joins whom and who connects to whom,” he said. “That is not the essence. The essence is what flags you are running with, what your worldview is, and how determined you are.”

He added that voters should ask who will not “fake it” the day after the election.

“With us, a word is a word,” Liberman said. “What we commit to before the election, we will stand by after the election.”