Jerusalem (AFP) - The leader of the "Israel Our Home" party, Avigdor Lieberman, announced on Friday his readiness to soften his position of rejecting the exemption of religiously extremist Jews (Haredim) from military service, in an effort to form a government coalition that would oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Published on: 06/11/2026 - 13:47

Neither Netanyahu nor his competitor Gadi Eisenkot were able to achieve a majority in the October 27 elections, in light of a sharp division in Israeli society over Netanyahu.

Eisenkot can form a coalition if he cooperates with the Arab parties, whose number of seats has increased significantly in light of dissatisfaction with the policies of Netanyahu's far-right government, but this possibility faces strong opposition from his partner in the opposition, Avigdor Lieberman, a former aide to Netanyahu who has become strongly critical of him, but who adopts similar hard-line positions towards the Palestinians.

Lieberman said on Friday that he would not back down from his refusal to ally with the Arab-Israeli parties, but he called on the opposition to negotiate with the religiously extremist Jewish parties, despite his sharp criticism of them over the years due to their members evading military service.

Lieberman considered that the two most important goals were to remove Netanyahu and avoid holding new elections, stressing that the time had come to make concessions and "realize that trying to get everything entails the risk of losing everything."

He added in a statement posted on social media, "This also includes the issue of the conscription law."

He continued, "This is painful for me, and I know it is painful for many others as well. But in light of the many challenges we face today, the interest of the State of Israel and the Jewish people must be above all other considerations."

Lieberman, whose party won seven seats, has long called for an end to the exemption that allows yeshiva students to avoid mandatory military service imposed on most other Israelis.

On the other hand, Netanyahu relied, for years, on the two main parties of religiously extremist Jews, but they withdrew from his government without trying to overthrow it, after he refused to pass a law establishing the exemption of members of this group from military service.

One of the two parties, United Torah Judaism (Torah Judaism), declined on Thursday to support Netanyahu to form the next government during consultations with President Isaac Herzog, but it did not support Eisenkot either.

The two ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties have 13 seats together, which would give Eisenkot a slim majority in parliament.

Herzog is scheduled to announce on Sunday the name of the person who will be given the first opportunity to form the government, and it is likely that it will be Eisenkot after he received recommendations from a larger number of parties.

Exempting religiously ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service has sparked widespread dissatisfaction among other Israelis, at a time when reserve soldiers have been forced to perform multiple rounds of service during the wars that Israel has been waging since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

© 2026 AFP

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