Yisrael Beytenu Chairman and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman addressed his comments indicating support for a left-wing government on Saturday night, noting Sunday morning that his party is still a “nationalist party” and that Jewish Home is “hysterical.”
“Everyone understands that there is no government with Yisrael Beytenu that is not a nationalist government,” Liberman stated on IDF Radio.
“[Likud MK] Ofir Akunis, who lives in north Tel Aviv, says that a vote for Liberman, who lives in [the Gush Etzion community of] Nokdim, is voting for the left. I think he made himself a laughingstock.”
Liberman also addressed Likud’s formal response, after it said Saturday night that “Liberman’s statements about his willingness to sit in a government headed by [Yitzhak] Herzog prove that a vote for Liberman might move votes from the right to the left and lead to the establishment of a leftist government.”
“It is not like [Likud],” Liberman said. “It is more suited for Jewish Home [to say that], as it is a hysterical party with hysterical people. Such a strange reaction from Likud demonstrates more its own internal tensions leading up to primaries.”
Liberman’s remarks follow a disastrous union between Likud and Yisrael Beytenu during the past elections, which ultimately led to both parties losing seats, political analysts noted.
Liberman added that he hopes to win at least 15 seats in the upcoming elections, although recent polls suggest consistently that the party would gain a maximum of nine seats in the 20th Knesset.
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