Extremist MK Itamar Ben Gvir will reportedly demand that his Otzma Yehudit faction receive the education portfolio on top of his campaign to become Minister of Public Security in informal coalition talks, which he is expected to start Monday at a meeting with Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu .
Ahead of last week’s election, which Netanyahu’s right-wing religious bloc won, Ben Gvir publicly announced that he aspires to become Minister of Public Security, overseeing the police force.
Public broadcaster Kan reported on Sunday that Ben Gvir would also call for a member of his faction to become education minister and that secular school curricula would undergo an overhaul to deepen Jewish history and the study of Jewish heritage.
Meanwhile, Channel 13 news reported that Ben Gvir was set to meet Netanyahu to demand tougher conditions for security detainees – who are overwhelmingly Palestinian terrorists.
Netanyahu began informal talks on forming his next government on Sunday – although the mandate has not yet been formally handed to him by President Isaac Herzog – and met with leaders of the two factions of United Torah Judaism, Moshe Gafni and Yitzhak Goldknopf; and Bezalel Smotrich, party leader of Ben Gvir’s Religious Zionism.
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Smotrich has reportedly expressed an interest in either the justice or defense portfolio, although Sunday night’s Channel 12 news reported that during a meeting earlier in the day, Smotrich demanded that he be given either the defense or finance portfolio.
The report added that Smotrich supported Ben Gvir’s call to be appointed Minister for Public Safety.
Kan reported that Smotrich also called for an “enhanced” override clause that would allow the Knesset to overturn Supreme Court decisions by a simple majority, rather than requiring at least 61 MPs. However, the report said Netanyahu and his ultra-Orthodox allies opposed such a measure.
LR: MKs Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich at a rally of their Religious Zionism party in the southern city of Sderot on October 26, 2022. (Gil Cohen-Magen / AFP)
Smotrich and Ben Gvir announced on Sunday that they will negotiate as a united bloc to stem speculation that Netanyahu might try to split their list in half.
In a joint statement, Smotrich and Ben Gvir said they had agreed “a common bloc and full support of both parties” – religious Zionism and Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit faction – “on the issue of joining the coalition”. The leaders declared that the factions “will not enter the coalition without each other. More than half a million voters voted for us to make a difference – and we are committed to them.”
Speculation ran rampant after last week’s elections that Netanyahu might seek to bring the far-right Smotrich and his MKs into his government, while leaving the even more radical Ben Gvir and his lawmakers in the opposition.
In past election campaigns, Netanyahu said Ben Gvir – who has been convicted of inciting violence, repeatedly waved his gun during confrontations and said he would encourage Arab citizens to emigrate – was unfit to hold a cabinet post. Last month he backtracked, saying the hot-headed MK could hold a ministerial position in his next government.
US officials have indicated in closed-door meetings that they are likely to boycott Ben Gvir if he is handed a cabinet post, and many diaspora Jewish groups have voiced their concerns about the rise of the far right, and in particular the prospect of Ben Gvir becoming the Expressed entry into the Cabinet.
Netanyahu is likely concerned about the possible reaction of the US and other Western allies if he hands over a senior position, including a seat in the security cabinet, to Ben Gvir.
Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu (center) speaks with religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich (second from left) during informal coalition talks in Jerusalem November 6, 2022. (Courtesy)
It’s unclear whether either Smotrich or Ben Gvir will get their demands.
According to Hebrew media reports, the post of justice minister will likely go to Likud-Mk. Yariv Levin, and Smotrich is not considered suitable for the post of Secretary of Defense, who instead goes to Likud-Mk. Yoav Gallant could go. While Smotrich has also reportedly expressed interest in becoming finance minister, recent comments from Likud officials suggest he may be eligible for the education minister position instead.
Ben Gvir is expected to fight an all-out battle to retain the post of public security minister, and it’s unclear whether Likud negotiators will be able to reach an agreement with the extremist MK without to give him the position.
For now, however, negotiations have only begun informally, and no jobs or orders have been confirmed or promised.
The race for cabinet posts also intensified within the ranks of the Likud, with Channel 12 reporting on Sunday night that unidentified lawmakers are looking to push legislation that would allow party leader David Bitan to serve as minister despite his charge on corruption charges.
Bitan denied that such a proposal was in the works, and in response told the network that if he wanted to get something done, he would do so openly.
While an impeached member of the Knesset can serve as prime minister, as Netanyahu did after his election victory and is expected to do again, an impeached lawmaker cannot be a minister, according to a Supreme Court ruling in the 1990s.
MK David Bitan during a plenary session in the Knesset on October 13, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Separately, Channel 12 aired a recording of senior party leader Israel Katz claiming he had formed a “faction” of loyalists within the party that would force Netanyahu to appoint him finance minister, a position he previously held and which he said publicly on Friday had demanded from Netanyahu.
In the recording of a private meeting, Katz is heard saying that Netanyahu “gives two roles [types of] People: the ones he wants and the ones he has to.” He added that getting a ministerial portfolio is “much easier” by forcing Netanyahu’s hand.
In the recording, Katz said he is a key figure in the Likud – more prominent than perceived rival MK Nir Barkat – and that he should be the natural frontrunner for the Treasury anyway.
But beyond that, Katz claimed he has “a faction” within the Likud that will support his demands, stating that it includes MKs Bitan, May Golan, Nissim Vaturi and Hanoch Milvitzky.
Netanyahu’s office issued a strong response, citing unnamed associates of the Likud leader.
“Netanyahu is not impressed by threats. Those who threaten find themselves on the sidelines, not in a ministerial role.”
Golan distanced himself from Katz in a statement, saying she was not part of any “faction” within Likud.
Likud MK Israel Katz addresses a conference organized by the newspaper Makor Rishon at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem February 21, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Katz himself commented that the remarks “were made in a private conversation full of humour, recorded in violation of all norms”. He said he was “happy” that he met the perceived criteria for appointing ministers, adding that he “trusts Netanyahu’s judgment when appointing government ministers.”
Meanwhile, MK Avi Maoz, the leader of the anti-LGBT Noam party, which also ran with the far-right Religious Zionism list, said Sunday he would conduct his own separate coalition negotiations.
A spokesman for Maoz declined to explain Noam’s demands to join the government, saying it “does not negotiate through the media.”
President Herzog’s office said Sunday that he would hold official consultations with party leaders at his Jerusalem residence on Wednesday, with the meetings broadcast live to the public, and then formally task Netanyahu with forming the next government.
The decisive victory of the Likud and its allied parties in last week’s elections makes Netanyahu the obvious choice.
Netanyahu’s bloc won 64 out of 120 seats and is expected to form a government with the ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and UTJ and the far-right alliance Religious Zionism-Otzma Yehudit.
Amy Spiro and staff at the Times of Israel contributed to this report.