Likud said to have tried to also break up Blue and White for Knesset majority

Amid the news of Likud’s overtures to Labor, Channel 13 reports that the party also looked at the possibility of bringing Blue and White into the coalition — or at least parts of it.

Members of the party who were thought to be potential deserters were offered portfolios including Defense, Finance, Justice, Culture and Communications, the report said. Some were offered future appointments as ambassadors to either join the coalition or support it from the outside.

Blue and White candidate Gadeer Mreeh (C) and party head Benny Gantz (R) attend a meeting with members of the Druze community of Israel in the city of Daliyat al-Karmel in northern Israel on March 7, 2019. (Jack Guez/AFP)

Druze MK Gadeer Mreeh, for instance, was offered possible changes to the controversial Jewish nation-state law, which has angered much of her community. Meanwhile MK Pnina Tamano-Shata, of Ethiopian descent, was promised further action to bring Ethiopian Falash Mura — whose claim to Judaism the government does not recognize — to Israel.

However, the report said Likud’s overtures were rebuffed.