Jerusalem – Benjamin Netanyahu And Isaac Herzog Have Secret Meeting

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    Rotating billboard that shows the faces of the two candidates for Israel's prime minister, incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog, in Tel Aviv, Israel, 12 March 2015. EPA/ABIR SULTANJerusalem – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Isaac Herzog held a secret meeting a few days ago in which they discussed the possibility of forming anational unity government, Channel 1’s Ayala Hasson reported Monday.

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    Sources informed about the meeting said Netanyahu is interested in forming a wide coalition that would include both Herzog’s Zionist Union and Bayit Yehudi, despite the vast differences between the parties. Unlike Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman, Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett has never ruled out sitting in a coalition with the Zionist Union.

    Spokesmen for both Netanyahu and Herzog firmly denied that they met, calling the report nonsense. But sources familiar with the particulars of the meeting said the spokesmen were purposely left in the dark. 

    Likud officials reported making progress with three parties that would have no problem sitting in a coalition with the Zionist Union: Kulanu, Shas, and United Torah Judaism. But Bayit Yehudi faction head Ayelet Shaked left a three-hour meeting with Likud’s team at the Knesset and said there was “absolutely nothing to report” from the coalition talks.

    “We have made important progress during the coalition negotiations regarding our demand to increase the salary and benefits of our soldiers, [but] on other matters, we are still stuck,” Bennett wrote on his Facebook page.

    A source in Kulanu revealed that besides a successful four-hour meeting between party leader Moshe Kahlon and Netanyahu Sunday night, there have also been secret meetings between the prime minister’s lawyer David Shimron and Kulanu representatives.

    Likud officials said that after a four-hour meeting with Shas’s negotiating team Monday and another meeting set for Tuesday with United Torah Judaism, it might be possible to finalize agreements by this weekend with both those parties and Kulanu. But Kulanu officials said the observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day made that goal difficult to achieve.

    The main sticking point preventing a deal remains whether the Interior Ministry’s Building Planning Committee will be controlled by Kulanu or Shas. Various solutions have been discussed, including giving Shas leader Arye Deri an enhanced socioeconomic portfolio that would include the Economy and Negev and Galilee Development ministies instead of Interior.

    Netanyahu has met four times in the past two weeks with Shas leader Arye Deri to reach a solution, including a late meeting Sunday night. Another portfolio in dispute is Religious Affairs, which has been claimed by Shas, Bayit Yehudi, and United Torah Judaism, but may end up going to a Likud minister with two deputies and a director-general from the three parties.

    The Likud has received permission from its prospective coalition partners to expand the next cabinet beyond the 18 ministers currently permitted by law.

    “There is nothing holy about the number 18,” Shimron said. “It wasn’t written in [Moses’s] tablets. The law was passed two years ago due to the coalition talks. It can be changed again.”


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