Shaked denies reports of possible joint run with Liberman

Outgoing Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked on Monday put to bed rumors of her teaming up with Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman if new elections were to be called, saying that reports to that effect over the last 24 hours were incorrect.

Opening her speech at an Israel Bar Association conference in Eilat, Shaked said, “I thought this would be a farewell speech from the Justice Ministry and that next week I would leave [the office at Salah al-Din Street, but politics has its own laws and there’s no way of knowing what will happen by Wednesday,” when the deadline to form a coalition expires at midnight.

“What I can say is that the reports from yesterday regarding my affairs were incorrect,” Shaked clarified.

Channel 13 had speculated that the outgoing justice minister, whose New Right party failed to clear the Knesset electoral threshold, had been in talks with Liberman about joining Yisrael Beytenu in light of a pair of meetings the two have held in recent weeks.

A survey conducted by a “political entity” on behalf of Yisrael Beytenu found that if Shaked and Liberman were to run together, their joint slate would win 10 seats in the Knesset, double the five that Liberman’s party currently holds, Channel 13 reported.

“I would be happy to run with Ayelet Shaked in the next elections,” Liberman subsequently told the Kan public broadcaster.

For its part, officials in the New Right are gearing up for another run if elections are called, regardless of whether Shaked sticks around.

“We will run, with or without Shaked,” a senior party member told The Times of Israel, adding that the New Right plans on forming additional alliances in order to broaden its appeal and ensure it crosses the threshold this time around.

Although secular, Shaked became justice minister as a member of the national religious Jewish Home party, led by outgoing Education Minister Naftali Bennett. When elections were called last December, Bennett and Shaked together split from the Jewish Home to form the New Right party.

Despite predictions of a major role in the next government, the New Right fell about 1,500 votes shy of passing the threshold to make it back into the Knesset in the April 9 vote, leaving Bennett’s and Shaked’s political futures in question.

A week after the election, Shaked announced that she was taking a break from politics for the foreseeable future, though those who have worked for her said she was gearing up to return to the Likud party, where she began her political career as an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

As the Wednesday 11:59 p.m. deadline for Netanyahu to form a government loomed, members of all likely coalition parties expressed a desire that the sides would be able to settle their differences — namely regarding legislation regulating exemptions from mandatory military service for yeshiva students — in time to avoid a second round of elections in less than six months.

Without Yisrael Beytenu’s five seats, Netanyahu’s prospective coalition partners can only muster 60 seats, exactly half of the Knesset total of 120.

Netanyahu held a series of meetings with likely coalition party chairmen — save for Liberman — on Sunday night and Monday morning. The sides decided to continue their efforts to establish a coalition by Wednesday night.

At the same time, Likud MK Miki Zohar said that upon orders from Netanyahu he had introduced a bill to dissolve the Knesset, which will be brought to an initial reading vote on Monday afternoon.

“The preferred date [for elections] is August 27,” he tweeted.

The Kan public broadcaster reported that another considered date is September 3.