Liberman: If I'm offered PM rotation, I'll say 'go to hell'

Liberman slings insults at Netanyahu, Likud ministers in a pre-Yom Kippur interview.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Avigdor Liberman (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Avigdor Liberman
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview to be published on Tuesday, making their partnership in a narrow coalition seem less likely than ever.
Liberman again said he will not compromise on matters of religion and state, in which he has demanded broad reforms, and when asked if he would be more accommodating if he were offered a rotation in the prime minister’s position, Liberman said he would tell them “to go to hell.”
“Unfortunately, Bibi doesn’t understand concepts like friendship or loyalty,” Liberman told The Jerusalem Post’s sister publication Ma’ariv.
Liberman lamented that whenever someone disagrees with Netanyahu, that person becomes his enemy.
“You are immediately accused of hating the prime minister, of being a leftist, of trying to topple him,” he said. “They ignore the facts.”
After complaining about name-calling, Liberman resorted to the same tactic against MKs in the Likud, calling Foreign Minister Israel Katz a “pathetic liar” and Culture Minister Miri Regev a “beast,” because of her famous comment that she never read Anton Chekhov.
Reminded that the interview would be published on Yom Kippur and asked if he wants to apologize, Liberman said he apologizes to beasts for the comparison to Regev.
“If an intellectual like [Likud ideological forebear Ze’ev] Jabotinsky would hear Miri Regev for one minute… he would explode,” Liberman said. “It’s an insult to the People of the Book. Today’s Likud has nothing to do with [Jabotinsky’s] Revisionist Movement.”
Regev responded that Liberman is “the most hated person, the person who caused us great damage and political chaos in the past year… holding a whole country hostage. All he cares about is his ego.”
Katz’s office responded that “Liberman is angry that his lies were exposed and his involvement in the plot after the April election – to give Netanyahu’s mandate to [Blue and White leader Benny] Gantz while breaking his promise to the voters to support Prime Minister Netanyahu – was revealed.”