Yisrael Beytenu Chairman, Avigdor Liberman, said Monday afternoon that his faction will vote against the government in Monday’s Knesset vote, on a resolution that would give the government authority to circumvent an anti-trust law and sign a deal with the entrepreneurship monopoly that is producing offshore natural gas.

Nevertheless, he said that he fully supports the deal that the government seeks to sign with the gas entrepreneurs.

“I spoke with dozens of people yesterday, everyone who deals with this issue,” he said, “and I support the framework wholeheartedly. That was our position since the 18th Knesset, when Minister Uzi Landau was energy minister.”

The opponents of the deal – headed by MKs Shelly Yechimovich of Labor and Meretz head Zehava Galon – are exhibiting a “combination of Bolshevism and populism,” he accused.

And yet, he said, his faction would oppose the government in the vote because “what the government is doing today is running away from responsibility. Everyone started to look for conflicts of interest in order to run away from the vote.”

“Today’s vote is not about substance, but about procedure,” he added. “Whoever does not want to take this on his back should not turn my back into a political trampoline.”

“We will vote ‘nay’ in this vote. We are not the Coalition’s babysitter and we will not give them any electoral ladder. They cannot roll this thing to our doorstep.”

He added that full details of the gas deal need to be made known to the public as soon as possible.