Israel’s former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman on Thursday urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel talks with the head of the Knesset’s Arab party, accusing him of granting legitimacy to “terror supporters,”and calling him “autistic” for supporting a two-state solution.
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Liberman, who heads the Yisrael Beytenu party, which is currently in the opposition, stepped down as Israel’s top diplomat earlier this month.
He could still potentially join Netanyahu’s coalition, which only has a razor-thin majority with 61 seats in the 120-member Knesset.
Ayman Odeh heads the Joint List, which groups the main Arab parties in the Knesset and won 13 seats in the March elections, becoming the third largest grouping in parliament.
“This man represents a list of terror supporters in the Israeli parliament — and the prime minister of Israel, who heads a government which defines itself as nationalist, is meeting with him,” said Liberman in a statement.
“Netanyahu’s meeting with Odeh, one of the sharpest opponents of Israel being the state of the Jewish people, gives legitimacy to forces working to destroy Israel from within and gives a stamp of approval to the fifth column working inside the Israeli parliament,” he said.
Liberman also voiced support for Netanyahu’s election day remarks in which he said Arabs were voting “in droves,” saying he was right to warn about it because they were being encouraged to do so by “elements hostile to Israel, first and foremost the Palestinian Authority.”
Netanyahu’s remarks were widely denounced as racist and even drew a public rebuke from US President Barack Obama.
Speaking to Israel Radio, Liberman also lashed out at Netanyahu for saying he supports a two state-solution with the Palestinians, accusing him of “zig-zagging” after having made pre-election remarks seemingly taking Palestinian statehood off the table.
“Anyone who thinks going back to the 1967 lines will solve the conflict is autistic,” he said.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu met with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and told her he supported Palestinian statehood.
Liberman is known for his scathing remarks on Israel’s Arab minority and the Palestinian leadership, with critics branding him as a dangerous radical and a racist.