Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party has denied blame for the current round of elections Sunday, after Likud sources and MK Yariv Levin claimed the party refused to cooperate in a coalition with the hareidi parties.

“Why do we oppose the construction of an alternative government in this Knesset?” the party stated, “Because it is simply postponing the collapse of the government – not more than that.” 

“The establishment of an alternative government, [which would] now have 61 government members where every single member of the Knesset can threaten and blackmail, would cause one more year of political instability – and then we’ll go to elections after wasting billions more to maintain a shaky coalition,” it added.

“A similar effort was made before the last elections, when the coalition brought in Kadima, headed by MK Shaul Mofaz – and it ended in three months in a resounding failure.”

It also rebuffed claims that it is fundamentally against including hareidi parties in the coalition.  

“We believe that there is no disqualification [of sectors in] Israeli society,” it said.

“The only consideration should be the national interest. Even after the recent elections, Yisrael Beytenu did not reject the hareidi parties; the only party that prevented hareidim from joining the coalition was Jewish Home.”

“Despite our opinion this is not the right time in terms of the country to hold elections, the option of setting up another government now is even worse,” the party concluded. “If the die is cast and we go to elections, we should do it properly – without tricks.”