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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Israel’s ex-defense minister Moshe Yaalon on Thursday said he will run for premier accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of scaring citizens in order to hold on to power.

Yaalon, forced out in May to allow Netanyahu to expand his coalition by bringing in a hardline nationalist party, has repeatedly criticized the current government since leaving office.

“The current leadership must stop scaring citizens as if we are on the verge of a second Holocaust,” Yaalon told a conference in Herzliya, Israel, saying security threats were being exaggerated.

Israel “deserves a leadership that stops zigzagging and encouraging hate between different groups in Israeli society to remain in power at any price,” he added.

In the remarks broadcast online Yaalon added: “My intent is to run for the leadership of Israel in the next elections” which are due to take place in 2019 at the latest.

There has been speculation that a new center-right party could be formed, with polls showing that one including Yaalon could pose a challenge to the Likud party, to which he and Netanyahu belong.

When he resigned last month, Yaalon warned of a rising tide of extremists in the country as well as in Likud.

Yaalon, also a former armed forces chief, had repeatedly clashed with far-right members of the coalition before resigning.

One high-profile dispute saw Yaalon and top military brass strongly condemn a soldier who was caught on video shooting a Palestinian assailant in the head as he lie on the ground posing no apparent threat.

Far-right politicians and protesters defended the soldier, who is currently facing a military trial for manslaughter.

Yaalon was replaced as defense minister by Avigdor Lieberman, a hardliner who has spoken of harsh actions against Palestinian “terrorists”.

Yaalon was seen as a counterweight to religious nationalists who hold key positions in Netanyahu’s right-wing cabinet, though he has in the past voiced opposition to a Palestinian state.

*AFP