Shaked rejects claims she is negotiating deal to drop out of election race

Interior Minister and Jewish Home party leader Ayelet Shaked rejects reports that she is in talks to drop out of the race for the Knesset ahead of the November 1 election.

“There are no negotiations, it’s more spin,” Shaked tells 103FM radio of reports that she is being offered an ambassadorship to drop out. “It seems like [Bezalel] Smotrich and his friends don’t have anything to sell or anything to offer because they spend all their time focused on me.”

The minister says she has no intention to drop out and “plans to run to the end.”

Shaked was elected to the current Knesset with Yamina and had a short-lived partnership with Yoaz Hendel before rejoining Jewish Home earlier this month. The party is currently polling below the electoral threshold in most of the unreliable but influential Israeli polls.