Bennett holds aces as coalition deadline looms

With just over 24 hours to the deadline of coalition talks, Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett has yet to meet the prime minister.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has until Wednesday at midnight to establish his coalition. This puts Bennett in a position of power, being the last head of a party necessary to complete a right-wing coalition, albeit with a slim majority of 61 MKs.

The other option for Netanyahu would be to turn to Zionist Union with a unity deal, and both Netanyahu and Zionist Union have rejected that possibility more than once.

Jewish Home was furious last week upon learning that Shas would receive the Religious Affairs Ministry. On Twitter, Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett wrote that handing Shas the ministry would signal an end to coalition negotiations with his own party.

On Tuesday night a coalition agreement was signed between Likud and Shas, and Jewish Home now needs to decide whether to make good on its threat.

Likud MK Miri Regev says today that “it’s inconceivable that Bennett would be the one to topple a national right wing government.” According to Ynet, she calls on Jewish Home to “immediately join the government. The time has come to start working and not to play ‘all you can eat’ games. Jewish Home is a natural partner for Likud, and despite the size of the party, the prime minister was very generous and offered significant portfolios, with executive abilities and influence over Israeli society and the settlement of the land.”

According to a statement from Netanyahu’s office from Tuesday, Jewish Home, which won eight seats, would receive the Education Ministry, the Diaspora Ministry and security cabinet membership for Bennet, the Agriculture Ministry and the Settlement Division (currently under the Prime Minister’s Office) for Uri Ariel, and the Culture and Sports Ministry for Ayelet Shaked. The party was also offered a deputy defense minister and chairmanship of the Knesset’s Law Committee.