Lieberman hints: Next time, no coalition with Shas
"In a coalition with Shas, Israel Beiteinu and Barak, everyone pulls in a different direction and the result is going full gas in neutral."
By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMANForeign Minister Avigdor Liberman 311 (R)(photo credit: REUTERS/Baz Ratner)
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman looked ahead to after the next election Wednesday, hinting that the next coalition should include his Israel Beiteinu party, but not Shas.Lieberman met recently with his American strategist Arthur Finkelstein. On past occasions when Finkelstein came to Israel, Lieberman and other clients of his made headlines shortly thereafter.RELATED:Yair Lapid rejects calls to join KadimaNoam Schalit defends decision to run for Knesset“In a coalition with Shas, Israel Beiteinu and Ehud Barak, everyone pulls in a different direction and the result is going full-gas in neutral,” Lieberman complained in an interview with Channel 2. “It would be very worthwhile to consider a coalition that from the start will focus on internal issues. A platform must be drafted that, for instance, will be in favor of dismantling religious councils.I don’t think Shas would accept that.”
Lieberman said the next government should make “dramatic changes,” such as increasing benefits to those who serve in the IDF and changing the electoral system.“The next coalition must be built better and sharpen these points,” he said.A source close to Shas Chairman Eli Yishai responded that “before Yair [Lapid] takes his father [the late Shinui head Yosef Tommy Lapid’s] old job as the national inciter against haredim, he will find that Lieberman is already there.”
