Liberman predicts Netanyahu will dissolve Knesset in November, says he will meet Bennett

Yisrael Beytenu party chairman Avigdor Liberman predicted Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would dissolve the Knesset and call new elections in November.

“The prime minister intends to dissolve the Knesset himself in November. So far, they have not started working on the state budget, which is to be presented to the government in August,” Liberman said at a conference organized by the Calcalist business daily.

Liberman, who broke with Netanyahu several years ago after decades of cooperation, also said holding elections before the end of the year could serve to postpone the prime minister’s ongoing testimony in his corruption trial.

“Since no budget has been presented and the prime minister does not want to testify on December 2, I have concluded that in November he will dissolve the Knesset himself and we will hold elections a few months later,” he said, adding that he “hopes that we will manage to dissolve it sooner.”

Following Liberman’s statement, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s spokesman released a photo of him meeting with Netanyahu, the Bank of Israel governor and senior financial officials for a preliminary discussion of the 2025 budget.

Noting that several coalition-backed measures are stuck in the Knesset and that last week it temporarily removed all legislation from the plenum’s agenda, Liberman said that “one way or another, we will get to the elections.”

The coalition’s failure to advance the legislative interests of some of its members has raised concerns among lawmakers about its ability to sustain itself.

Regarding the possibility of joining forces with other right-wing opposition parties, Mr Liberman said the main consideration in the elections was “how to get the maximum number of seats”.

“We have to make a healthy and responsible decision on how to deal with this situation, either by all coming together or by creating several lists,” the former Netanyahu ally said.

Another hint of Bennett’s return

According to a recent poll, if a new right-wing party were introduced and included Liberman, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, New Hope leader Gideon Sa’ar and former minister Ayelet Shaked, it would become the largest party with 27 seats, followed by Likud with 18 and National Unity with 16.

A significant majority of the public, 34%, believe Bennett should lead such a party, with 11% supporting Liberman, 9% Cohen, 8% Sa’ar and 5% Shaked, the poll found. The remaining 33% said they did not know.

Asked by The Times of Israel at his party’s weekly Knesset faction meeting Monday afternoon whether he was in contact with Bennett, Liberman said he had met with him just two days ago and would “meet him next Wednesday as well.”

Liberman did not respond directly when asked whether he planned to run alongside Bennett in the next election, saying only that he was in contact with “everyone.”

The Kan public broadcaster reported in May that Liberman and Bennett were in discussions about creating a right-wing union that could offer a “government alternative” to Netanyahu.

Liberman’s remarks came shortly after Sa’ar told reporters that Bennett intended to return to politics.

In response to a question from The Times of Israel last week, Saar said that the last time he met Bennett “was on the eve of the Shavuot holiday and I understand that’s his plan.”

Bennett, who led the now-defunct Yamina party, has been out of power since the collapse in 2022 of his diverse coalition government, which ousted Netanyahu as prime minister after 12 consecutive years amid unprecedented political turmoil that included four national elections in three years.

After Shavuot, which this year fell on the evening of June 11, Bennett appeared to hint at a return to politics, tweeting that it was possible to rebuild a broad unity coalition similar to the one he established with current opposition leader Yair Lapid in 2021.

A spokesman for Bennett declined to comment last week.

A new head of defense?

Speaking to reporters on Monday afternoon, Sa’ar denied that he had been approached by Netanyahu about taking the defense minister position, following a report that the prime minister was considering offering him the ministerial post currently held by Likud’s Yoav Gallant in order to bring him back into the coalition fold.

“It is not correct that I received such an offer… to become defense minister,” Sa’ar said when asked about Kan’s report that Netanyahu had discussed the possibility with his associates.

In March, Saar announced his party’s departure from the coalition after his request to join the top war cabinet was rejected. He has since sharply criticized the government’s handling of the Gaza war and said he would be willing to make “concessions” to create a right-wing bloc opposed to Netanyahu.

Last month, Liberman claimed he had been offered the job of defense minister. Netanyahu’s Likud party denied that such an offer had been made.

Government officials have repeatedly called on Netanyahu to fire Gallant, and last Sunday the prime minister reportedly accused him of working to overthrow the government during a heated cabinet meeting. Netanyahu insiders have reportedly discussed potentially firing Gallant in the coming months, according to an unsourced Channel 12 report last week.

According to the report, Netanyahu’s inner circle views Gallant as a renegade within the coalition, due to positions that have often put him at odds with the prime minister, including on the Haredi conscription, the war with Hamas in Gaza and the handling of disagreements with the American administration.

Speaking to pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 last week, Likud MK Moshe Saada called on the prime minister to appoint either Liberman or Sa’ar as Gallant’s replacement.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.