Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recently offered MK Tzipi Livni (Zionist Union) to be appointed Foreign Minister, but she refused his offer, Channel 10 News reported on Friday.
According to the report, Netanyahu had made the offer a close associate of Livni’s, and the two held negotiations for an unknown period of time.
In addition, said the report, it was suggested that Livni join the coalition along with the MKs who represent her Hatnua party in the Zionist Union faction. However, the negotiations failed after Netanyahu failed to comply with Livni’s demands on diplomatic issues, including a construction freeze in Judea and Samaria.
The Prime Minister’s Office denied that any offer was made to Livni. Livni's response to the report was, "As long as there is no significant diplomatic development, there is nothing to talk about."
It remains unclear whether Zionist Union chairman Yitzhak Herzog was aware of any possible negotiations between Livni and Netanyahu.
Herzog himself held coalition talks with Netanyahu last year, but those talks ultimately fizzled and Netanyahu added Yisrael Beytenu to the government, appointing its leader, Avigdor Liberman, as defense minister.
Herzog later emphatically declared that he would no longer be holding any talks with Netanyahu about the possibility of a unity government.
The opposition leader claimed in April that he was working on forming an alternate coalition to replace Netanyahu.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)