Netanyahu, Liberman locked in conspiracy battle
Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman, the longstanding nemesis of opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, has been accused on social media of a conspiracy to kill a police officer.
Almost everyone who has ever vowed to remove former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power served him in one capacity or another over the years: members of his Cabinets, Knesset members of his Likud party, close aides, advisers and military officers under his command.
The list goes on and on. In the 1990s, when Netanyahu was consolidating his political power, there were Knesset members Ronnie Milo, Dan Meridor, Yitzhak Mordechai and Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, the late Amnon Lipkin Shahak. In more recent times, their names were Moshe Kahlon, Zeev Elkin, Gideon Saar, Benny Begin, Naftali Bennett, Ayelet Shaked — all ministers in his various governments and all having concluded at some point that then-Prime Minister Netanyahu was a danger to the State of Israel.
But the greatest friend-turned-foe, an almost mythological nemesis and the Netanyahu family’s ultimate demon is Avigdor Liberman, currently Israel’s finance minister.
These two men go way back. Liberman was Netanyahu’s right hand even before the up-and-coming politician took control of the Likud and ultimately of the country in the 1996 elections. He was the closest confidant, most intimate partner and sole political operator in the young Netanyahu’s rise. Only people who have been so close can know each other so well, and the depth of their historical alliance is matched only by the bitterness of their contemporary enmity. Netanyahu and Liberman are locked in a heavyweight wrestling match. Only one will walk out of the arena on two.
