Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked said that her party expected to be an important partner in Binyamin Netanyahu's new government, and that the party would seek the Public Security portfolio, among others.
“It's not a condition, it's a demand,” Shaked told Army Radio Thursday. “Religious Zionists gave of their blood and guts to elect Netanyahu,” and now the community expects to be compensated.
According to analysts, Jewish Home's precipitous drop from the the 12-13 seats polls predicted to the eight it actually received was due to votes being siphoned off not only by Eli Yishai's Yachad party, but also by the Likud, especially in the last few days of the campaign, with voters choosing Netanyahu out of fear rival Yitzhak Herzog would be chosen to form the government.
“Netanyahu has a moral obligation toward Jewish Home,” said Shaked. “We were the first to stand by his side and call on voters to support him, and he declared 500 times that we were his 'natural allies.'”
According to sources in Yisrael Beytenu, the party is set to demand a high price for the party's joining Binyamin Netanyahu's new coalition – an appointment as Defense Minister for Avigdor Liberman.
According to the NRG news site, sources in the party said that Liberman was set to meet with Netanyahu on the matter within the next day or two.
According to the sources, Liberman and Netanyahu discussed the defense portfolio in the days leading up to the election, but did not come to any agreement. With that, they said that the talks were “positive.”