PM said to offer Education Ministry to Likud’s Steinitz, in blow to Yamina

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday reportedly offered the position of education minister to Likud MK Yuval Steinitz, indicating that the religious right-wing Yamina party was bound for the opposition.

The current education minister is Rafi Peretz of Yamina, which is threatening to bolt to the opposition over disagreements with Netanyahu over the party’s role in the new coalition.

Channel 12 first reported that Netanyahu had offered the education portfolio to Steinitz. It remains unclear if he accepted.

Contradicting that report, the Kan public broadcaster said that Netanyahu was saving the Education Ministry for Yamina in case it decided to join the government.

Yamina fumed at Netanyahu on Tuesday after Likud MK Yuli Edelstein accepted his offer to be health minister in the next government. The position had been coveted by Yamina party leader Naftali Bennett.

“Netanyahu slammed the door on our entry to the government,” a Yamina source said in a statement from the party. “He looked for the perfect way to humiliate Yamina and its voters and succeeded. Edelstein did not demand the health portfolio at all, Bennett did, and deserves it in light of his role in the coronavirus crisis.”

The source added: “This is a calculated move by Netanyahu to destroy the alliance with religious Zionism. Netanyahu’s betrayal of his biggest supporters signals the beginning of his end in politics.”

Following the Yamina statement, Netanyahu insisted that he wants the national-religious party in the next government but accused them of rejecting his “generous offer” to join.

“They requested four senior [ministerial] portfolios for six Knesset members,” he claimed in a video statement, saying this was “impossible.”

He also complained that Yamina, a member of his right-wing religious bloc, didn’t recommend he be tasked with forming the new government last week.

“I hope a change will occur. In any case, religious Zionism is our flesh and blood. Most religious Zionists voted for Likud, they’re represented by Likud and the Likud-led government will continue to look out for our shared interests and values,” Netanyahu said.

Earlier Tuesday, Yamina launched an extraordinarily strongly worded broadside against Netanyahu after coalition talks it was holding with Likud once again broke down.

“Today’s date, May 12, will go down in history as the start of Netanyahu’s fall from power,” a Yamina source told the Ynet news site.

“This is the day that Netanyahu has cut his ties with the right wing and religious Zionism, which were his most faithful partners for decades,” the unnamed source was quoted as saying. “While they showed loyalty to him, he stabbed them in the back.”

Yamina has been a key part of Netanyahu’s right-wing religious bloc over the past two elections, though the premier and Bennett are widely seen to have a fraught relationship.

The two parties, which are ideologically close and have been political partners for many decades, have been trading accusations for the last few days.

Netanyahu had called Bennett on Monday evening to offer the small six-seat party the ministries of education and Jerusalem affairs, a “significant” deputy ministership responsible for national service volunteering, and the Settlement Division overseeing development in West Bank settlements.

Bennett, in turn, demanded the health and transportation ministries, and the chairmanship of the Knesset’s powerful Law, Constitution and Justice Committee.

On Monday, Bennett said his party had asked for just two ministries, but was seeking ones with real influence in the next government, which he said was denied by Likud’s offer.

“Bennett’s refusal to accept [Netanyahu’s] generous offer, which hands Yamina all the issues of importance to the religious Zionist community, demonstrates that the party isn’t interested in ideology, but in seat-ology,” Likud said, referring to cabinet seats.

Blue and White has been rumored to want the health portfolio too, even though the Likud-Blue and White coalition agreement signed on April 20 hands the ministry to Netanyahu’s bloc. Netanyahu has reportedly demanded three of Blue and White’s ministries in exchange, a demand Gantz has so far refused.

The breakdown of talks on Tuesday come after Netanyahu asked Gantz to let him add additional ministries to the new government — bringing the total ministers set to be sworn in on Thursday to 36, the largest ever — in a bid to expand the offer to Yamina.

Yamina’s withdrawal eases Netanyahu’s difficulties within Likud, where a large number of senior MKs are competing for a smaller number of ministries than in the last government. By the terms of the Gantz-Netanyahu coalition agreement, half the cabinet posts of the new government must go to Gantz’s bloc of 19 MKs and half to Netanyahu’s bloc of 59.

Edelstein, the former Knesset speaker, accepted the health portfolio on Tuesday, vowing to steer Israel through the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The development came as the Health Ministry’s director-general, Moshe Bar Siman-Tov, resigned ahead of the appointment of a new health minister. The incumbent health minister, Yaakov Litzman, is set to receive the housing portfolio.

Edelstein held the position of Knesset speaker from 2013 until late March, when he defied a High Court of Justice order to put the post up for a vote, shuttered parliament, and resigned. The post was then taken up by Gantz, with Netanyahu’s support, kicking off talks that resulted in a three-year coalition deal with a rotation of the premiership.

As part of the coalition agreement, Blue and White demanded Edelstein not be given the position of speaker again. Edelstein had previously requested that Blue and White lift its veto, telling Netanyahu he wants to return to his former post.