Despite Likud’s announcement that Yisrael Beiteinu party chairman Avgdor Lieberman has agreed to join Prime Minister Netanyahu’s emergency governmenthe himself refuses, saying that what he wants is to join the narrow scheme that manages the war in Gaza.

Earlier, Likud, the party of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, announced that Avigdor Lieberman, a nationalist Israeli opposition politician, had agreed to join Israel’s security council.

“I want to join the war council to bring about the fastest possible victory. I am not interested in being ‘Minister No. 38’ in the government and serving as a fig leaf,” Lieberman said in a social media post.

An hour earlier, Likud had invited Avigdor Lieberman and another member of its nationalist party to join Israel’s security council. “Lieberman has accepted the invitation,” the statement said.

In a difficult position, Netanyahu is trying to broaden the base of his government as Israel prepares for a possible ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Former Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party agreed to form an emergency national unity government with Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners to deal with the crisis sparked by the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Israel’s war council established under the agreement with Benny Gantz is very narrow in composition. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Galand and Benny Gantz will attend, and two observers: Gadi Eisenkot (National Unity), former Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, and Ron Dermer, also former Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Force and former Minister of Strategic Affairs.