Kulanu minister Gallant seen planning to defect to Likud

A cabinet minister for the Kulanu party, Yoav Gallant, attended a Likud meet and greet last week, apparently signaling that he will be defecting to the ruling party.

Gallant, who is housing and construction minister, participated in a closed-door gathering of the Likud Central Committee, one of the most senior forums of the party, Hadashot TV news reported Monday.

The development came with less than a year to go before national elections, and with the coalition holding the slimmest of majorities in the Knesset, following the resignation last month of defense minister Avigdor Liberman and his withdrawal of his Yisrael Beytenu party.

Gallant was warmly greeted by the Likud members who were present at Thursday’s meeting, and seemed to be on a first-name basis with many of them, the report said.

Addressing the gathering, Gallant said he supported Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to appoint himself defense minister in Liberman’s stead.

Shabtai Yossef, a member of the Likud Central Committee, greeted Gallant at the event, reportedly saying, “Mr. Minister, we welcome you. You are flesh of our flesh, an organic part of the Likud. Only [Gallant] can bring this number of people here.”

Others made similar statements that appeared to indicate Galant’s imminent defection to the ruling party, the report said.

However, when one activist suggested that Gallant should be backed in a bid to become prime minister, Galant told him, “That’s enough.”

According to the Hadashot report, in recent months Gallant has been meeting with various Likud officials, and the Central Committee event last week was organized specifically for his benefit.

Publicly, Gallant has denied that he is thinking of switching allegiances. At a conference in Jerusalem two weeks ago, he was asked if he will join Likud and answered, “If it is dependent on me, I will remain with Kulanu.”

Gallant joined the newly created Kulanu, led by Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, in 2015.

Without the Yisrael Beytenu party, the government has a majority of just 61 Knesset seats to the opposition’s 59, and is liable to topple long before the deadline for the next elections, in November 2019.

Further eroding the coalition’s stability, on Sunday, the Israel Police recommended that Netanyahu be indicted for taking bribes in the Bezeq-Walla probe, known as Case 4000, the third case in which law enforcement officials have concluded that he should stand trial.

An indictment could hamper Netanyahu’s chances of running again for prime minister as the head of the Likud party.

Raoul Wootliff contributed to this report.