Yair Golan tells Liberman to go form a government with Netanyahu

Yair Golan, who leads The Democrats party, publicly turned on Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman after a television report said Liberman was resisting a quick repeal of the outgoing coalition's judicial overhaul legislation. The Times of Israel reported that Golan's response came after Channel 13 aired an account of Liberman's position in talks among opposition leaders.

In a Hebrew post on X, Golan wrote that if Liberman wants a government that will not conscript the Haredim and will not cancel what Golan called the "coup laws", he is "invited" to set one up with Netanyahu. The post is Golan's own statement, and it frames Liberman's reported stance as incompatible with the goals of the bloc both men belong to.

What Channel 13 said Liberman told his partners

According to the Channel 13 report, as relayed by The Times of Israel, the leaders of the so-called change bloc are keen to move fast on cancelling several contested laws affecting the judiciary that the previous Knesset, Israel's parliament, approved. Liberman reportedly told them that the moment was not right.

Instead, Channel 13 said, Liberman argued that the bloc should concentrate on three items: replacing the Speaker of the Knesset, passing legislation that would cap how long a person can serve as prime minister, and choosing a new state comptroller. In the words the broadcaster attributed to him: "Everything else can come later." Liberman's comments were reported secondhand through the broadcaster; no direct statement from him appears in the material.

Who the two men are

Avigdor Liberman heads Yisrael Beytenu, a right-leaning, secular party that has long campaigned for ultra-Orthodox men to be drafted into military service. He has sat in governments with Benjamin Netanyahu in the past, but in recent years has positioned himself among the parties seeking to replace him. Golan's jab plays directly on that history: telling Liberman he is free to partner with Netanyahu is a challenge to his standing in the anti-Netanyahu camp.

Yair Golan chairs The Democrats, a party on the Israeli centre-left. The Times of Israel noted he appeared at a counter-terrorism summit at Reichman University in Herzliya on October 6, 2026. His post ties two issues together: the draft of the Haredim, as ultra-Orthodox Jews are known in Hebrew, and the repeal of the judicial legislation.

The terms in the dispute

The change bloc is the informal label for the parties that have organised around replacing the Netanyahu-led coalition. The phrase "outgoing coalition" used by The Times of Israel indicates that a new government is being negotiated.

The judicial overhaul refers to the package of laws advanced by Netanyahu's coalition to change the powers of the courts and the way judges are chosen. Opponents describe it as a coup against the judiciary, which is the language Golan used in his post. Supporters present it as a correction of judicial overreach.

The Knesset speaker presides over parliament and controls much of its agenda, including which bills come up for votes. The state comptroller is the official watchdog who audits government ministries and public bodies. A term limit for prime ministers would be new in Israel, where no such cap exists in law.

Why the order of priorities matters

The gap described in the reporting is not necessarily about whether the judicial laws should be undone, but about when. By Channel 13's account, Liberman did not dismiss the other items but said they could wait. Golan's reply treats delay on the judicial laws as equivalent to keeping them, and links it to the Haredi draft, an issue on which Liberman has historically been one of the most vocal voices. The Times of Israel's report does not indicate whether Liberman's reported comments touched on the draft at all.

What the reports do not say

Neither report includes a response from Liberman or Yisrael Beytenu to Golan's post, and Liberman's position is known only through Channel 13's account rather than his own words. The material does not identify which judicial laws the bloc wants to cancel first, who the bloc would back for Knesset speaker or state comptroller, or how other change bloc leaders responded to Liberman's proposed order of business.