Former defense minister Moshe Ya'alon attacked his successor Avigdor Liberman for summoning Army Radio commander Yaron Dekel over a program the station played on Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish on Wednesday.

Speaking at financial daily The Marker's conference, Ya'alon called for a leadership that does not fear criticism and does not work to weaken the media. "Confident leadership does not need to fear this. I see now that they are messing with Army Radio. So, once and for all Army Radio will broadcast the truth, "Pravda" in Russian," he said sarcastically, referring to the Soviet era newspaper.

Liberman had stated that the program on Darwish was "a grave matter in which someone who wrote anti-Zionist texts, which to this day serve as fuel for terrorist activities against the state of Israel, has the military radio station broadcasting him and his works as one of the flagship texts of Israeli society together with "Jerusalem of Gold and "The Silver Tray". This is obviously something that constitutes a cultural decline and it cannot be accepted."

Ya'alon: Liberman trying to turn Army Radio into 'Pravda'