Friday, April 16, 2021

Report: Yamina offered Defense, Foreign Ministries

Great progress has been made in recent contacts between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Yamina chairman Naftali Bennett, Channel 12 News reported Thursday night.

During the talks between the Likud and Yamina, senior portfolios were offered to the party - but no rotation of the premiership has been offered yet.

The proposals that came up in the negotiations that took place between the parties: the defense ministry for Naftali Bennett and the foreign ministry for Ayelet Shaked - even though the Yamina party sought the finance ministry. Netanyahu is apparently interested in keeping Yisrael Katz in the ministry, so Shaked was offered the foreign ministry instead,

In addition, Yamina is expected to receive a "smaller" portfolio - probably the culture and sports ministry - while the justice ministry is expected to remain in the hands of the Likud in any government that Netanyahu forms.

The report further states that the political establishment estimates that a proposal for a rotation in office will be offered to Bennett only if he agrees to commit from now on that he will not try to form a government with the anti-Netanyahu bloc if Netanyahu fails in the task. Both sides denied the details of the report.