Chairman Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid party wanted Kadima Party Chairman Shaul Mofaz to enter the government but Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu refused, according to a Friday-morning report by the Yisrael Hayom daily. Mofaz hoped to receive the defense portfolio when he joined the Yesh Atid-Habayit Hayehudi alliance after a direct meeting with Netanyahu during the first phase of coalition talks.

Mofaz's part in the alliance did not last. At one point in the negotiations, Lapid asked if Mofaz could join the government at the expense of someone in his own party, but Netanyahu refused and made it clear he did not want Mofaz in the cabinet.