Netanyahu meets Likud MKs to discuss ministerial posts as coalition talks drag on

Prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with lawmakers from his Likud party to determine what positions they will receive in the next government.

Netanyahu’s spokesperson denies reports that certain jobs have already been promised to certain lawmakers, saying that at the moment the Likud leader is “only hearing and listening to Likud MKs.”

A reporter for the Makor Rishon newspaper reports that Likud MK Yoav Gallant, who is said to be gunning to become defense minister, left his meeting “with a wide grin,” saying that it was “one of the best meetings I’ve had.”

Likud MKs have been privately and publicly fuming in recent days about the number of senior posts handed out to other parties in the future coalition, as well as promises to divide up some ministries in a way that will leave even less authority for Likud.