Hanegbi, 50-Year Likud Loyalist, Breaks Ranks to Back Liberman
The former national security adviser, dismissed by Netanyahu weeks ago, says he can no longer back a right-wing bloc that tolerates nationalist violence and shields ultra-Orthodox citizens from the draft.
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By Israel Politics Post Staff·Published
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with then-national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi at a press conference in Jerusalem · Source: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90, via The Times of Israel
Tzachi Hanegbi, a Likud stalwart for nearly five decades and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's national security adviser until his dismissal last month, announced in an Ynet opinion column that he will vote for Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beytenu in the October 27 election, according to a report by The Times of Israel.
The break marks the first time in Hanegbi's long career that he has voted outside the traditional right-wing fold. He was removed from his post in October reportedly after disagreements with Netanyahu over the conduct of the Gaza war, and has since become an outspoken critic of legislation that would formally exempt ultra-Orthodox citizens from military service.
In his column, Hanegbi said he could not stay silent in the face of what he called rising nationalist violence left unanswered by the governing coalition, nor align himself with partners pushing to weaken law enforcement. He described the proposed Haredi draft exemption as a threat to the country's social cohesion, a view that has put him at odds with coalition partners he once stood beside in government.
The defection lands just over a week before Israelis go to the polls, adding to a steady drumbeat of senior right-wing figures publicly distancing themselves from the coalition's current direction.
