Avigdor Liberman

Avigdor Liberman (born June 5, 1958, Kishinyov, Moldavia, U.S.S.R. [now Chișinău, Moldova]) is an Israeli politician, leader of the nationalist right-wing political party Yisrael Beiteinu, who served as Israel’s foreign minister (2009–12; 2013–15), defense minister (2016–18), and finance minister (2021–22). Once a close ally of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Liberman and his party were distinguished by their calls for all Israeli citizens to participate in national service, ending exemptions for Palestinians with Israeli citizenship and Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews. His hawkishness on national security eventually led him to become one of Netanyahu’s fiercest critics on the right, especially as he demanded a tougher approach toward Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Immigration to Israel and political life in Likud

At age 20 Evet Lvovich Liberman immigrated with his parents to Israel, where he took the name Avigdor. After serving in the military, he earned a degree in international relations and political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. There he exhibited the combativeness that would characterize his later career, demanding that Palestinian students participate in civil guard patrols or forfeit their places in the campus dorms.

In 1988 he moved with his wife to the Jewish West Bank settlement of Nokdim. That same year he allied himself with Israeli politician Benjamin Netanyahu, and in 1993 he masterminded Netanyahu’s successful campaign for the Likud party leadership. When Netanyahu first became prime minister three years later, he appointed Liberman director general of the prime minister’s office.

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Leader of Yisrael Beiteinu

Liberman left Likud after a falling out with Netanyahu, and in 1999 Liberman founded a new political party, Yisrael Beiteinu. The party, which drew its membership mainly from immigrants from Eastern Europe, won 4 seats in the 120-seat Knesset (parliament) in the 1999 national election.

Liberman served as minister of national infrastructure (2001–02) in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s first government, and, when Sharon was reelected in 2003, he appointed Liberman minister of transportation (2003–04). In late May 2004 Liberman outlined his “Populated Area Exchange Plan,” which proposed ceding Palestinian population centers in Israel in exchange for incorporating Jewish settlements in the West Bank into Israel. Palestinians remaining in Israel would be required to take a loyalty oath or lose the right to vote.

In October 2006 Prime Minister Ehud Olmert brought Liberman, whose party had won 11 seats in the March election, into his new coalition as minister for strategic threats, focusing on the Iranian nuclear program. Liberman resigned in January 2008 over the Annapolis process (U.S.-led peace talks with the Palestinians begun in late 2007 in Annapolis, Maryland), during which both sides had agreed to additional discussions on the creation of a Palestinian state. In spite of his resignation, Liberman’s service in a top security portfolio gave him national leadership credibility.

In the run-up to the 2009 election, Liberman sharpened his questions about Israel’s Palestinian minority, expressing doubts about their loyalty to the Jewish state and threatening to make their right to citizenship dependent on an oath of allegiance. In the election, held on February 10, 2009, Yisrael Beiteinu secured 15 seats in the Knesset, and it joined a Likud-led coalition government with Netanyahu as prime minister. On March 31 Liberman was sworn in as foreign minister. The next day he renounced Israel’s commitment to the Annapolis process. In May 2009 Yisrael Beiteinu introduced a citizenship law and other legislation perceived as discriminatory against Palestinian citizens of Israel, none of which was passed.

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Soon after taking over as foreign minister, Liberman was interrogated by police on suspicion of money laundering, bribery, and obstructing justice in a scandal that threatened to end his controversial political career. In August 2009 Liberman announced that he would step down from all his government posts if indicted on charges of corruption. He resigned from his posts as foreign minister and deputy prime minister in December 2012, after he was indicted for fraud and breach of public trust. He was acquitted of all charges in November 2013 and returned to his position as foreign minister the same month. He occupied the post until May 2015, when Yisrael Beiteinu opted not to join the governing coalition led by Netanyahu.

In May 2016 Yisrael Beiteinu agreed to join Netanyahu’s coalition. As part of the agreement, Liberman took over the position of minister of defense. The appointment dismayed centrists, who worried that Liberman’s bellicose statements and outspoken opposition to pursuing peace with the Palestinians would harm Israeli diplomacy. That year, amid indications that Hamas (the de facto ruling faction in the Gaza Strip) was preparing for a future attack, Liberman presented Netanyahu with a recommendation to take preemptive action by mid-2017. No such action took place, but in 2018 skirmishes stemming from a series of border protests in the Gaza Strip led to months of conflict between Hamas and Israel. Netanyahu, leaning on the advice of his IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot (Eizenkot), resisted pressure by Liberman to escalate the conflict to a full-scale war. In July a ceasefire was negotiated and in November Liberman resigned from his post. This time the break with Netanyahu was decisive.

Opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu

Early elections were held in April 2019, and, with narrow coalition prospects, Liberman stood as kingmaker. Negotiations to form a coalition remained at an impasse, however, as Liberman insisted on ending conscription exemptions for the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews. No compromise was reached, and new elections were set for September.

Liberman again found himself playing the role of kingmaker after elections were held in September. He insisted, however, that he would only support a unity government that included both Netanyahu’s Likud and its main challenger, the Blue and White list, which would be the only possible coalition that would not depend on the support of either the religious right or of Palestinian citizens of Israel. When no such government could be formed, a new election was held in March 2020, and Liberman gave tacit support to Blue and White leader Benny Gantz to form a government. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, Gantz chose to form an emergency unity government under Netanyahu; Liberman sat out of that government.

With the vaccination campaign underway in 2021, the emergency government gave way to regular political pressures and Netanyahu was ultimately ousted in June. Liberman joined the unity government led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid and was appointed to lead the finance ministry. In that position he enjoyed relative autonomy and pursued an aggressive agenda of liberalization. His financial policies included reducing regulations on agriculture that lowered prices on food and increased competition; they also cut subsidies, such as those to Haredi families. With Haredi parties excluded from the coalition, the Knesset in November passed the state’s first budget since 2018.

Following the attacks of October 7, 2023, and the onset of the Israel-Hamas War, Liberman rejected a request by Netanyahu to join the emergency war cabinet, claiming that he would be serving merely as a fig leaf. In June 2024 Netanyahu offered him to take over the post of defense minister from Yoav Gallant amid tensions between Netanyahu and Gallant, who had been critical of Netanyahu’s handling of the war. Liberman refused the post and called instead for early elections. In June 2025 he raised alarms when he revealed that Israeli forces were arming a Palestinian militia in the Gaza Strip to counter Hamas. He alleged that the militia was affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)—some members of the clan that comprised the militia had previously cooperated with ISIS in smuggling operations—although members of the militia were not believed to have any ideological sympathy with the jihadist organization.

When elections were ultimately held in 2026, Yisrael Beiteinu won 7 of the 67 Knesset seats that favored replacing Netanyahu with Eisenkot, Netanyahu’s main challenger in the election. He refused to join a government that would rely on the backing of parties representing Palestinian citizens of Israel, despite those parties comprising 19 of the 67 seats backing Eisenkot. After United Torah Judaism, a Haredi party, indicated its willingness to ditch Netanyahu for Eisenkot, Liberman agreed to consider concessions on an anticipated law to draft Haredi Jews. A coalition agreement that included Yisrael Beiteinu and the Haredi parties (which had won 13 seats) would allow the formation of a government under Eisenkot without the support of the Arab parties.