Liberman said to keep Foreign Ministry, Shas to get transportation

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Friday with Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett and then with Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman, as negotiations gathered pace ahead of a fast-approaching initial deadline for the formation of a new governing coalition.

According to a report on Channel 2 Friday, Liberman was to keep the Foreign Affairs Ministry as Bennett was gunning for the Religious Affairs Ministry, which is also coveted by the ultra-Orthodox Shas party.

According to the report, Jewish Home was also demanding the Foreign Ministry, but Bennett was willing to give it up in exchange for Liberman’s help in getting the Religious Affairs portfolio.

Shas leader Aryeh Deri, according to the report, was willing to settle for the Transportation Ministry however, a possibility which incumbent minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) is said to be fighting against.

Earlier, Walla reported that Netanyahu wished to give the Religious Affairs Ministry to Shas.

Netanyahu has reportedly offered Bennett three different portfolios, including Economy and Agriculture, but Jewish Home has not accepted.

The speculations come as frequent reports have surfaced over the past few weeks that Netanyahu was considering forming a unity government with Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog, also head of the Labor Party.

While the reports have been routinely denied, Herzog was said to have met over the past few days with a high-ranking Likud member close to Kulanu leader Moshe Kahlon, who is said to be headed to the Finance Ministry, according to Channel 2. It was not clear what was discussed in that meeting.

Yisrael Beytenu MK Robert Ilatov this week harshly criticized Netanyahu’s conduct in the negotiations, charging that the PM preferred a unity government, without Herzog’s partner Tzipi Livni, over his party and Bennett’s Jewish Home.

Ilatov said that Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox partners also preferred a government with the Zionist Union because “it would be easier for the Haredim to receive millions of shekels from the treasury and cancel legislation on sharing the [military draft] burden, as well as government decisions on conversion to Judaism. They fear Yisrael Beytenu positions on every issue that relates to religion and state.”

Liberman has said his party would oppose any changes to landmark laws approved by the previous government, which Netanyahu’s potential partners Shas and United Torah Judaism would like to see overturned, This includes a law dictating the drafting of ultra-Orthodox youth and a law to decentralize and ease the path to conversion.

The foreign minister reportedly asked Netanyahu to provide him with all written agreements reached between Likud and the ultra-Orthodox parties.

The initial period of 28 days given to Netanyahu by President Reuven Rivlin to form a coalition will end on Wednesday, and the prime minister is expected to ask for the maximum available extension of 14 days.

On Tuesday, Interior Minister Gilad Erdan said that his Likud party won’t hesitate to bring the Zionist Union into a unity government should the right-wing parties, with whom it is currently negotiating, stick to their maximalist demands.

Erdan seemed to add substance to reports, denied by both the Likud and the Zionist Union, that Netanyahu has sounded out the party’s leader, Isaac Herzog, about a unity government — a scenario that has alarmed Yisrael Beytenu and Jewish Home.

The Likud has reportedly been resisting the demands of those parties for certain senior ministries, and its threats to reach across the aisle have been interpreted by pundits as a negotiating tactic.

Herzog on Monday emphatically denied a Channel 1 report that he had secretly met with Netanyahu. “It never happened,” he said, while his party termed the report “ludicrous.”

The report said the meeting was held in secret and that close aides on both sides were kept out of the loop.

Jonathan Beck and Stuart Winer contributed to this report.