After days of mudslinging, Bennett to meet PM in last-ditch coalition talks

After repeatedly claiming his Yamina party will be heading to the opposition and that its talks with Likud about entering the government had ended, Naftali Bennett will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday evening in what appears to be a final attempt to bridge the gaps between the sides.

His spokesman, who announced the meeting, declined to say whether it represented progress toward Yamina joining the government set to be sworn in Thursday.

After the last time Bennett and Netanyahu spoke, Likud issued a statement claiming Yamina had definitively decided to join the “left-wing opposition,” while the right-wing party said it would not join the coalition and was instead “preparing for the day after Netanyahu.”

Netanyahu had called Bennett on Monday evening to offer the small six-seat party the ministries of education and Jerusalem affairs, along with a “significant” deputy ministership responsible for national service volunteering, and the Settlement Division overseeing development in West Bank settlements.

Bennett, currently defense minister, demanded the health and transportation ministries, and the chairmanship of the Knesset’s powerful Law, Constitution and Justice Committee.

Responding to Tuesday night’s announcement that Likud MK Yuli Edelstein had accepted Netanyahu’s offer to become health minister, Yamina fumed that “Netanyahu slammed the door on our entry to the government.”

“He looked for the perfect way to humiliate Yamina and its voters and succeeded. Edelstein did not demand the health portfolio at all, Bennett did, and deserves it in light of his role in the coronavirus crisis,” a source said in a party statement.

And in a further blow and indication that the religious right-wing party was headed for the opposition, Netanyahu on Tuesday also reportedly offered the position of education minister to Likud MK Yuval Steinitz. The current education minister is Rafi Peretz of Yamina.

Yamina has been a key part of Netanyahu’s right-wing religious bloc over the past two elections, though the premier and Bennett are widely seen to have a fraught relationship.

Following the announcement of Edelstein as health minister, Netanyahu insisted that he wanted the national-religious party in the next government but accused it of rejecting his “generous offer” to join.

“They requested four senior [ministerial] portfolios for six Knesset members,” he claimed in a video statement, saying this was “impossible.”

He also complained that Yamina didn’t recommend he be tasked with forming the new government last week.

“I hope a change will occur. In any case, religious Zionism is our flesh and blood. Most religious Zionists voted for Likud, they’re represented by Likud and the Likud-led government will continue to look out for our shared interests and values,” Netanyahu said.

Yamina’s withdrawal would ease Netanyahu’s difficulties within Likud, where a large number of senior MKs are competing for a smaller number of ministries than in the last government. By the terms of the coalition agreement between Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, half the 32 cabinet posts of the new government must go to Gantz’s bloc of 19 MKs and half to Netanyahu’s bloc of 59.