Yisrael Beiteinu officials emphasized Wednesday morning that their party does not rule out sitting in the same government coalition together with the Sephardic religious Shas party. This is despite Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s criticism of Yisrael Beiteinu’s secular policies.
“We are not placing any ultimatum,” a senior Yisrael Beiteinu official stated, adding, “It also won’t matter as far as we’re concerned that the first meeting of Bibi [Netanyahu] would specifically take place with Shas. Everything depends on the fundamental lines.”
Yisrael Beiteinu chair Avigdor Lieberman is expected to meet on Wednesday with Likud head Binyamin Netanyahu for initial clarification talks for possibly putting together a nationalistic bloc. Yisrael Beiteinu will be conveying a special party meeting to decide who will lead the negotiations with the Likud Party, which has already announced that Prof. Yaakov Ne’eman will be responsible for coalition negotiations.