PM meets Bennett, Liberman as coalition talks drag on

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett on Friday and later with Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman as well, as an initial deadline for the formation of a new governing coalition approached with no deals yet made.

The meeting between Netanyahu and Bennett was their first in three weeks. The two spoke for an hour and a half and agreed to meet again. According to Walla, Jewish Home is insisting on receiving the Religious Affairs Ministry and Foreign Ministry, while Netanyahu wishes to give the first to Shas and the second to Liberman.

Netanyahu has reportedly offered Bennett three different portfolios, including Economy and Agriculture, but Jewish Home has not accepted.

Meanwhile Liberman did not discuss ministers and portfolios in his meeting with the premier later on Friday, but rather the basic principles of the next government.

He said his party would oppose any changes to landmark laws approved by the previous government which Netanyahu’s potential partners Shas and United Torah Judaism would dearly like to see overturned: the law dictating the drafting of ultra-Orthodox youth and the law to decentralize and ease the path to conversion. The foreign minister reportedly asked Netanyahu to provide him with all written agreements reached between Likud and the ultra-Orthodox parties.

The initial period of 28 days given to Netanyahu by President Reuven Rivlin to form a coalition will end on Wednesday, and the prime minister is expected to ask for the maximum available extension of 14 days.

Yisrael Beytenu MK Robert Ilatov warned Wednesday that if Netanyahu doesn’t back away from alleged promises he made to ultra-Orthodox parties, then Yisrael Beytenu will consider staying out of the government.

“Netanyahu prefers a unity government without us, without Jewish Home and without [Tzipi] Livni,” Ilatov was quoted by Ynet as saying. He was speaking at a meeting in Netanya with party activists and according to the news website, harshly criticized Netanyahu’s conduct in the negotiations.

Ilatov said Shas leader Aryeh Deri and UTJ leaders Ya’acov Litzman and Moshe Gafni were pushing for the formation of a unity government with the Zionist Union, because “It is obvious to them that (under a unity government) it would be easier for the Haredim to receive millions of shekels from the treasury and cancel legislation on sharing the (military draft) burden, as well as government decisions on conversion to Judaism.”

Interior Minister Gilad Erdan said Tuesday that his Likud party won’t hesitate to bring the Zionist Union into a unity government should the right-wing parties, with whom it is currently negotiating, stick to their maximalist demands.

Erdan seemed to add substance to reports, denied by both the Likud and the Zionist Union, that Netanyahu has sounded out the party’s leader, Isaac Herzog, about a unity government — a scenario that has alarmed Yisrael Beytenu and Jewish Home.

The Likud has reportedly been resisting the demands of those parties for certain senior ministerships, and its threatening to reach across the aisle has been interpreted by pundits as a negotiating tactic.

“We’ve been saying all along that if the days go by and the parties of the nationalist camp fail to compromise, the prime minister will have no choice but to make a generous offer to the Zionist Union, even though that is not our preferred option,” Erdan said in an interview with Army Radio.

Herzog on Monday emphatically denied a Channel 1 report that he had secretly met with Netanyahu. “It never happened,” he said, while his party termed the report “ludicrous.”

The report said the meeting was held in secret and that close aides on both sides were kept out of the loop.

Netanyahu’s camp has remained silent on the report, which came as coalition talks were in full swing nearly a month after national elections saw the Likud party gain 30 seats.

Under Israel’s electoral system, Netanyahu must cobble together a coalition comprising smaller parties by offering cabinet positions — including, possibly, some of the most senior posts in government — to factions whose support he requires if he is to cement a Knesset majority of at least 61 seats.

Meanwhile, lawmakers within his own Likud party have also demanded top jobs, citing the party’s strong 30-seat showing, which makes the party the largest by far in the 20th Knesset.

Jonathan Beck and Stuart Winer contributed to this report.