Minutes after President Reuven Rivlin tasked Yesh Atid chair Yair Lapid with forming Israel’s next government on May 5, his ally Avigdor Liberman, head of Yisrael Beitenu, tweeted an optimistic assessment of the prospects of unseating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I welcome the president’s speed in making the right decision by handing the mandate to Yair Lapid. It is now up to us, the party leaders in the bloc of change. As one well acquainted with their positions, I can reassure Israelis that a stable government can be presented as soon as next week,” Liberman tweeted. He ended his message with the immortal exhortation of Benjamin Herzl, the visionary founder of modern-day Zionism, “If you will it, it is no dream.”

Liberman was instrumental in formulating and guiding Lapid’s strategy prior to the March 2021 elections and since then. He knows what drives his fellow party leaders in the bloc who share one overriding goal: removing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from office. To that end, they are willing to entertain far-reaching ideological and personal concessions.

If a new government is formed in the coming weeks, Liberman will undoubtedly be credited with being one of its earliest architects in the days when such an outcome appeared all but impossible.