Former MK Professor Aryeh Eldad had some harsh criticism on Tuesday for incoming Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman.

“Liberman is no longer on the right,” Eldad told Arutz Sheva on the sidelines of the launching of his new book, entitled “How Things Are Seen from Here”.

“Liberman is trying to look like an impassioned right-winger, claiming he will eliminate [Hamas leader Ismail] Haniyeh and bring about the collapse of Hamas. But in fact, Liberman wants to divide Jerusalem and is serious about it, Liberman wants to establish a Palestinian state and is serious about it, Liberman intends to give up on Umm al-Fahm and to transfer Arabs who live there to the Palestinian state. He is only right-wing when he needs to curse Arabs,” said the former MK.

“In order to maintain the image of a hawk, he says he is ready to eliminate Ismail Haniyeh. It does not cost money to talk about it. But in his declared and written policies he is no longer on the right,” said Eldad.

With regards to his new book, Eldad explained that it “tries to analyze the pattern of behavior of Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert and Binyamin Netanyahu – why they really gave up their ideology when they became Prime Minister of Israel, and the question is whether the ideology of the right-wing in Israel can really stand even when you are Prime Minister and you are confronted with hostile American or European policy.”

“The answer in the book is that those leaders of the right in Israel who gave up their ideology did it long before they reached power – not because they became Prime Minister but in order to become Prime Minister,” he stated. “The only one who kept his ideology was Yitzhak Shamir.”