Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has announced his decision to dissolve the coalition between his party, Israel Beitenu and the Likud of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, citing longstanding differences between him and Netanyahu had become “essential, and no longer allow the existence of a shared framework.
In a press conference at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, Lieberman said that “the partnership didn’t work in the elections, and it didn’t work after the elections,” but that the two parties had maintained it so long as they did not have major differences on policy.
The two parties ran together for the Knesset in the January 2012 elections.
The timing of Liberman’s announcement follows a public spat between the Foreign Minister and Netanyahu over the latter’s restrained response to the escalating rocket fire in Gaza.
“The reality in which we live with hundreds of rockets in the hands of a terror organization that can decide at any moment to use them is intolerable,” Lieberman said Monday.
“Suggestions to wait, listen, delay – it’s not clear to me what we’re waiting for. At the end of 2015, Hamas will have thousands of rockets. We have to end this. We can’t live under this permanent threat, where 1.5 million people have to be ready to run to shelters at a moment’s notice.”
At the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu chastised ministers, including Economy Minister Naftali Bennett and Lieberman, who spoke out publicly against the government’s policy on Gaza.
“Those who criticize publicly are being irresponsible,” Netanyahu told the ministers, adding that some were taking advantage of the delicate situation for their own political benefit. ‘’Once the cabinet makes a decision, it is incumbent on ministers to support the decision in public,’’ he said.
But Lieberman said his party would ‘’remain loyal members of the government coalition.” “I don’t see any reason to break it up. We’re the last ones who want the breakup of the coalition.”
The current government “has no better alternative. As far as I understand it, new elections also won’t meaningfully change the division of power, of seats in the Knesset.”
Liberman’s move to separate from the Likud is also tied to his party’s poor showing in recent polls. The party chairman believes that Yisrael Beytenu was hurt by the decision to run jointly with the Likud, shrinking its Knesset representation from 15 seats to 11.
According to The Times of Israel, Lieberman’s move could have a destabilizing effect on the ruling coalition, reducing the ruling party’s share of the Knesset’s 120 seats from 31 members to just 20 – just one more than coalition partner Yesh Atid of Yair Lapid.