Netanyahu met twice recently with Smotrich to gauge his opposition to deal — report

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich twice in recent days in an attempt to gauge whether he can convince the far-right leader to drop his opposition to the proposed hostage release-ceasefire deal with Hamas, according to a report Tuesday.

Citing unnamed sources familiar with the talks, the Walla news site reported that two first discussed the issue on Saturday night in Jerusalem and then a second time on Sunday, during a larger meeting on the 2025 state budget.

The sources added that Netanyahu wanted to sound out the extent of Smotrich’s opposition to a deal, and whether or not there were certain conditions under which the far-right minister could back such an agreement or quietly accede to its passage.

Both Smotrich and his ultranationalist ally National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir have campaigned intensely against the proposed deal — which they have termed “reckless” — threatening to resign from the government if Israel consents to an agreement that would halt fighting in Gaza and release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners, in return for the terror group freeing some of the hostages it seized during the October 7 attack that started the  war.

Smotrich and Ben Gvir control a combined 13 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, giving them outsize influence in Netanyahu’s 64-seat coalition.

Walla said neither the Prime Minister’s Office nor the Finance Ministry responded to a request for comment.

The report came a day after the Haaretz daily said Netanyahu’s inner circle was skeptical of his far-right partners’ threats to bring down the government if a deal is signed, as the premier anticipates that even if an agreement is reached it will collapse within weeks.

That report, which cited sources who participated in the discussions, said Netanyahu’s confidants think that in the worst case, Smotrich and Ben Gvir would withdraw from the government but remain in the coalition, preventing the government’s collapse and staving off early elections that could knock Netanyahu out of power.

In any event, Netanyahu’s confidants expect the initial six-week ceasefire, stipulated in the first phase of the deal, to eventually break down — meaning Israel and Hamas will fail to agree on the terms of the next phases — at which point Smotrich and Ben Gvir would return to the government.

Depending on the timing, the far-right parties’ time spent outside the government could coincide with the Knesset’s summer recess. Thus the exodus would have only symbolic effect, Haaretz said. The newspaper also noted that Netanyahu has twice before led governments propped up by parties that had left the government in protest but remained in the coalition.