Netanyahu to sit down with Ben Gvir this afternoon for coalition talks

7 November 2022, 1:59 pm

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Head of the Otzma Yehudit party MK Itamar Ben Gvir speaks to supporters as the exit polls of the Israeli elections are announced, at the party's campaign headquarters in Jerusalem, November 1, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu is slated to meet Religious Zionism MK Itamar Ben Gvir for informal coalition talks at a hotel in Tel Aviv this afternoon.

Ben Gvir, who heads the Otzma Yehudit faction, and Religious Zionism chief Bezalel Smotrich vowed yesterday to conduct joint negotiations to enter the next government, promising not to split up.

Nevertheless, Netanyahu met with only Smotrich in Jerusalem yesterday as Ben Gvir was in Eilat.

Many Western allies have expressed grave concern over the prospect of the extreme-right firebrand Ben Gvir holding a cabinet position in Netanyahu’s expected future government.