Chairman of Yisrael Beytenu, Avigdor Lieberman, spoke today (Wednesday) at Calcalist's annual Capital Market Conference, and referred to the possibility of early elections initiated by Netanyahu.
"In my estimation, between June and September, Netanyahu will hold new elections," claimed Lieberman. "We need to understand what guides Netanyahu, and in my estimate, the only thing that guides him is his legacy. He does not want to go down in history as one who responsible for the most terrible failure in Israel's history. He put all the chips on (normalization with the Saudis) and along the way, he will sell out Israel's security."
"He pledged to legitimize the Saudi nuclear program, which will place the entire Middle East in a crazy nuclear race," said the one-time Netanyahu ally. He understands that Smotrich and Ben Gvir will not let him do it, so he intends to pass the agreement with Lapid and Gantz on his side instead."
It is no coincidence that last Saturday, Likud minister Tzachi Hanegbi said that the times for an agreement will be May and June, and for that Netanyahu will dissolve the government and hold elections. He wants the elections to be about the Saudi agreement and not about October 7th, and I hope people don't buy into all this nonsense."
Regarding the difficult security situation in the northern Israel, Lieberman said: "For the first time we are living in the reality that there are close to 170,000 refugees within the State of Israel, the North is empty and the worst thing is that half of the people do not intend to return to live in the North anymore - the government simply gave up on the Galilee and lost the North. The directorate that was supposed to be set up in the North has not yet been set up due to fighting over who will head it."
Lieberman once again attacked Gantz's plan to recruit charedim into the army: "The outline for the recruitment of Gantz and Eisenkot is really an outline for evasion training, it is a political deal with Shas and United Torah Judaism. I intend to submit our conscription law and it must be the simplest - all young man aged 18 must report to the army and the IDF will decide whether they join the army or opt for civil service.'