Avigdor Liberman, the hawkish chair of the Yisrael Beitenu party, is changing direction. In a Feb. 4 interview with the Ynet news site, he proclaimed with complete certainty, “I know there won't be a unity government, but a Zionist and liberal government."

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rival, Blue and White party Chair Benny Gantz, were trying, each to no avail, to form a government following the September 2019 elections, Liberman was the one who insisted he would not join either one of them unless they formed a unity government. He even presented a four-stage plan for such a coalition government, which would entail forming a team of Likud, Blue and White and Yisrael Beitenu representatives to formulate guidelines on defense, economic and social issues, and on the issue closest to his heart — relations between state and religion. Other parties, according to his blueprint, could join the trilateral coalition only if they adopted the agreed guidelines. Presumably, the guidelines that Liberman meant to stipulate would have left the ultra-Orthodox, Arab and hard right parties (except for the Likud) out of the unity government. After all, he has been waging almost daily war against all of them. Liberman even generously declared over and over that he is fine with staying out of a unity government if the Likud and Blue and White decide to go it together, without any others.

In the ensuing months, Liberman’s circumstances have changed. Netanyahu withdrew his request for Knesset immunity from prosecution and the bribery indictment against him was filed Jan. 28 in the Jerusalem District Court. Liberman’s already hostile relationship with Netanyahu has deteriorated further, and US President Donald Trump unveiled his “deal of the century” for Israeli-Palestinian peace, which pulled the rug out from under one of Liberman’s main agenda items — “exchanging lands and populations of Israeli Arabs,” as set out in his party’s “vision.” His party’s 2015 election campaign slogan was, “Ariel for Israel, Umm al-Fahm for Palestine” (in reference to the West Bank settlement town of Ariel and the Arab-Israeli town of Umm al-Fahm).

Two points are worth noting in Liberman’s 2015 slogan. One is that he spoke of Palestine, meaning the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. The second noteworthy point was his mention of Umm al-Fahm and other towns and villages in the Wadi Ara region as if no Israelis lived there. At the time, it sounded like an absurd, radical plan of a desperate politician, but to his surprise, and perhaps amazement, Netanyahu “stole” his land swap idea. Haaretz reported Feb. 4 that back in 2017, Netanyahu proposed to senior Trump administration officials that they include the transfer of Arab residents from the so-called Triangle region of central Israel to Palestinian control as part of the deal of the century. That proposal would have included even more citizens and towns and villages than the one Liberman originally envisioned.