Likud’s Katz gets security cabinet seat, but Erdan still without post

A late-night meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Likud No. 2 Gilad Erdan about the latter’s job in the new government ended Wednesday night with no result.

The two were expected to meet again Thursday, though Likud sources said it was possible Erdan could remain an MK without a ministerial post.

Netanyahu has until Thursday at 7 p.m. to satisfy as many lawmakers as he can with a relatively small number of posts before the coalition is set to be sworn in at an official Knesset ceremony.

On Wednesday evening, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz was reappointed to his post, and was also given the intelligence minister portfolio, with a coveted seat on the security cabinet.

Netanyahu may have the hardest time pleasing Erdan, who has battled for a senior government post.

Netanyahu has urged him to take a reduced Interior Ministry, one that saw its planning department handed over to the Finance Ministry in the coalition deal with Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu party. Erdan balked at the offer, a significant bump down in the Israeli political hierarchy from his expectations of holding the Foreign Ministry post.

Netanyahu has refused to assign a foreign minister in the new government, holding on to the post as a standing enticement for the return of Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman into the coalition or, even better in terms of coalition math, the Isaac Herzog-led Labor Party.

According to Channel 2, Erdan has proposed uniting the interior and internal security ministries into a French-style office that sees domestic planning and public security as two sides of the same coin.

Netanyahu has reportedly declined to lose two posts to one candidate when he is already dealing with 17 lawmakers competing for just 12 posts.

If the two fail to reach an agreement, sources close to Erdan have suggested he may choose to sit out the new government.

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, meanwhile, told Netanyahu that he’d have a hard time defending the appointment of Shas party leader Aryeh Deri as a minister at the High Court, in light of Deri’s prior conviction on bribery charges while serving as interior minister. He served a three-year sentence in 2000.

“It’s a decision which raises legal problems, and that’s in light of his difficult criminal past and the damage to public confidence and the virtue and integrity of government activity, which could be drawn up due to Deri’s appointment as a minister,” Weinstein said.

The rest of the scuttlebutt from Likud watercooler conversation:

It is all but certain that Moshe Ya’alon will retain the Defense Ministry.

The new appointments are likely to include Ze’ev Elkin as absorption minister, Yariv Levin as tourism minister, Miri Regev in the Culture and Sports Ministry and Ofir Akunis at communications.

Silvan Shalom, the Likud stalwart and past candidate for party leader, has not yet found his place in the new government, say insiders.