Communications Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) recently received an offer to be appointed as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Channel 2 News reported.
According to the report, the current ambassador, Ron Prosor, has indicated that he wishes to conclude his term earlier than expected, and the role was offered to Minister Erdan.
This is not the first time that Erdan has been offered this role: Before Prosor’s appointment, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had offered the role to Erdan, who had seriously considered accepting it but ultimately chose to turn it down.
According to Channel 2, Erdan is once again seriously considering the offer and is being backed by Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman.
Should Erdan accept the offer, however, the move would put Netanyahu in an awkward position when his party will become the second largest party in the Knesset with 18 seats, one fewer less than Yesh Atid, after Erdan resigns from the Knesset.
The Likud and Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu ran for the Knesset on a joint list, but Liberman announced in July that his faction was splitting off from Likud and will be independent from it.
With that, the next MK in line to be appointed to the Knesset should Erdan resign would be Leon Litinetski, who is a member of Yisrael Beytenu. Netanyahu and the Likud were recently hurt when MK Carmel Shama-Hacohen, who joined the Knesset instead of Reuven Rivlin, resigned after a few weeks to become an Israeli ambassador in the OECD. Shama-Hacohen was replaced by Alex Miller, also a member of Yisrael Beytenu.