Yisrael Beiteinu rules out coalition with Arab, chareidi parties

Rafi Ben Shitrit, a candidate on Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beiteinu list, laid out his party's coalition red lines in an interview on Radio 103FM: "We will not form a government with the help of the Arab parties. There will be no government with Ra'am and not with any other anti-Zionist or non-Zionist list. The Hungarian model will return here."

He repeated his party's longstanding position against sitting with the chareidi parties: "As long as the chareidim encourage draft evasion and desertion and do not teach core subjects, they cannot be our partners. We will form a government of Zionist parties, and the chareidim are not Zionist parties. We are a right-wing, right-wing, right-wing, national-liberal party."

Last week, Channel 14 reported that Liberman's team is working on a political plan to demand the premiership the day after the election. The move is designed to bypass Gadi Eisenkot and position Liberman as first in rotation to lead the state.

Liberman argues in closed conversations that he has the most experience of any opposition candidate, having served as defense minister, foreign minister and finance minister, while Eisenkot lacks managerial and political experience and has never held a ministerial post.

According to the emerging strategy, if Binyamin Netanyahu does not reach 61 mandates, Liberman will work to establish a new right-wing bloc together with Naftali Bennett and Ofer Winter. Bennett is said to be in on the plan, while Winter is believed to be unaware of it at this stage.

The move includes approaching backbench Likud MKs to secure a coalition majority, alongside an attempt to bring in Betzalel Smotrich. Liberman estimates that Smotrich could join a government under his leadership because it would be right-wing leadership, something that would not be possible for right-wing voters in the case of Eisenkot or Bennett.

By positioning himself at the head of the government, Liberman is trying to form a coalition without relying on the Arab factions or on the Democrats, thereby keeping his commitments to his voters.