Yair Netanyahu, a son of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, is speaking out against Yisrael Beitenu party chairman, MK Avigdor Lieberman regarding his insistence on passing the current version of the draft bill. It is known to all today that the issue of recruitment into the IDF and the current version of the draft bill have become ‘the’ issue in coalition talks, which are currently deadlocked due to the disagreement between the chareidi parties and Lieberman.

Yair Netanyahu spoke out against Lieberman, asking why if “everyone must serve” in the IDF, why doesn’t the draft bill include Israeli Arabs. He adds that he wonders what happened to Lieberman’s demand for “without loyalty there is no citizenship”, which seems to have disappeared. He is referring to Lieberman’s call that all citizens take an oath of loyalty to the state or lose their citizenship.

“Why does Lieberman not insist on a complete draft, including nearly two million Israeli citizens who are exempt from enlistment and go directly to study in university with affirmative action at the expense of the Jews” stated Yair, referring to the Israeli Arab population. He added, “He hasn’t tweeted on this a single time after the elections”.

Lieberman fired at the Likud party during Shabbos, as Likud officials explained the ball is in Lieberman’s court and he may topple what could be the next right-wing government with his unyielding position on the draft bill.

Lieberman stated, “Both in the election campaign and after the elections, we said clearly and publicly that we would only support Netanyahu as a candidate for prime minister. All the requests we received from various entities to follow other tracks were rejected out of hand. Even today, we say unequivocally that we will not recommend any other candidate for prime minister.

“Military service has always been a supreme value in the worldview of the national camp. At this point, before the elections, during the elections and after the elections, we made it very clear that we would not move one millimeter from the original version of the draft law, as it passed in the first Knesset vote. We did not introduce anything new, we did not make difficulties, nor did we introduce any surprises. The text of the law was achieved in total cooperation with the representatives of the chareidi parties, and all but one agreed.

“Therefore, it is not understandable why instead of putting pressure on the chareidi parties, and specifically on that one, the Likud is chosen to slander Yisrael Beiteinu”. Lieberman added that “we are not negotiating with the chareidim, we are negotiating with the Likud. Our demand is that the agreement between us includes a clause that the draft law in the original version will be passed in second and third readings [in Knesset].”

“At the moment this is arranged, a true right-wing government will arise, and not a chareidi government. Yisrael Beitenu believes in ‘live and let live’. We are in favor of a Jewish stated and we are opposed to a halachic state. So, accept our offer, and if not, we will go to elections again. The people will decide who wants a right-wing government or a chareidi one”.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)