PM said to promise Finance Ministry to Kahlon

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday reportedly promised Kulanu leader Moshe Kahlon the Finance Ministry portfolio, as the various political parties outlined their demands to join the coalition.

Although Netanyahu has not yet been formally tasked with forming a coalition by President Reuven Rivlin, the prime minister has been meeting with heads of the parties he hopes to include in his coalition. He met with Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman earlier Tuesday, and in his evening meeting with Kahlon, the two reportedly agreed that Kahlon would be the next finance minister.

Prior to the election, Netanyahu had vowed to appoint Kahlon as finance minister if elected, but the ex-Likud minister dismissed the pledge, saying the prime minister had made promises in the past and failed to follow through.

Liberman, who has set his sights on the defense portfolio, told Channel 2 that his meeting with Netanyahu went well, but would not elaborate. Liberman said that nothing has yet been promised to him, and emphasized he understands that he will not receive all of his demands.

The Jewish Home party announced Tuesday its demands in the coalition talks – the defense, education and religious affairs ministries, Haaretz reported.

Likud, however, wants to keep Moshe Ya’alon as defense minister and Liberman is fighting for the position.

Coalition talks will only begin in earnest after Rivlin announces his choice for prime minister. Rivlin is expected to task Netanyahu with building the next government on Wednesday, after the prime minister received 67 recommendations for the premiership from MKs.

Netanyahu will have four weeks to form his government, with an option to extend talks for another two.

Haredi news site Kikar Hashabat reported that ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism had not yet been invited to meetings with Netanyahu.

Less than a week after Israel’s general elections, Netanyahu has received recommendations from 67 out of the 120 MKs to form the next coalition, and party representatives are out in full force to position themselves and their factions. Netanyahu must now move to assign cabinet positions, including some senior ministerships, to other factions whose support he needs to form a Knesset majority, but also to lawmakers within his own Likud party, which with 30 seats is by far the largest body in the next Knesset.

The tentative game of give-and-take may prove difficult for Netanyahu because of opposing inter-party interests and ideologies.

Number 8 on the hawkish Jewish Home party list, Bezalel Smotrich, preemptively threatened to “explode” away and break apart the coalition within a year and a half if the government moves ahead with a Supreme Court resolution to demolish a number of Israeli structures built on private Palestinian land in the West Bank.

“The evacuation of the Amona [outpost] and the demolition of houses in Ofra will be the landmine that if stepped on, will lead to our explosion out of the coalition,” Smotrich told Galey Israel radio on Monday, referring to a Jewish settlement and a nearby outpost 20 kilometers north of Jerusalem.

“I don’t see the Jewish Home party sitting in [government] and partaking in the destruction… of an entire community and the expulsion of its residents,” he said.

Analysts believe the incoming government will be formed by right-wing and religious parties, some of which oppose the creation of a Palestinian state, and that if Netanyahu bows to international pressure to disengage or evacuate settlements in the West Bank, he could risk a coalition break-up leading to new elections.

In Israel, prime ministers are given a mandate to govern for four years, but terms rarely last that long due to coalition infighting and eventual government breakdowns.

Meanwhile, members of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party told reporters that faction chief Aryeh Deri will predicate his entry into a Netanyahu government on two senior cabinet positions. While cabinet seats remain formally undecided, sources close to Deri said that he would demand the Interior Ministry and the Religious Affairs Ministry.

Likud party officials announced that they would move to ensure that no. 3 on the party’s list, Yuli Edelstein, will be reelected as Knesset speaker. Senior Likud representatives are expected to demand a large number of top cabinet positions from Netanyahu, owing to the large size of the party.

Meretz, Yesh Atid, Zionist Union and the Joint (Arab) List are expected to sit in the opposition.

Avi Lewis and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report