Liberman told Walla on 19 July 2026 that he saw himself as a candidate for prime minister, subject to the election results. This is his stated ambition.
Who they are
Avigdor Liberman founded Yisrael Beiteinu in 1999 and has led it ever since, and has served as deputy prime minister and in five ministries. He was born Evet Lvovich Liberman in Kishinev, in Soviet Moldova, in 1958; his father had been active in Betar in Romania. He studied at the Kishinev agricultural institute and came to Israel at twenty, taking the name Avigdor. He served in the military government in Hebron and read international relations at the Hebrew University.
Liberman was spokesman for the Likud faction on Jerusalem city council in the mid-eighties and published a Russian-language weekly there. From 1988 he spent a decade at Benjamin Netanyahu’s side, as his parliamentary aide and then as director-general of Likud and of the Prime Minister’s Office, before leaving to run a firm trading in Russian raw materials. He founded his own party after being refused a post at Likud headquarters and told that Netanyahu saw him as an electoral liability.
Liberman was convicted in September 2001, under a plea bargain, of assaulting a minor and making threats, and paid a fine and compensation. The main corruption investigation against him, into payments routed through his former company, was closed in December 2012 for want of evidence. The charge he did face, of fraud and breach of trust over an ambassador’s appointment, ended in a unanimous acquittal on 6 November 2013.
Positions and record
Draft: Everyone serves; no stipends for evasion.
Security: No deals with Hamas; decisive force.
Religion & state: Civil marriage, end the rabbinate monopoly.
Where they stand
Holds the party line on every issue.