MKs Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked
MKs Naftali Bennett and Ayelet ShakedHezki Baruch

According to Galei Tzahal, the Likud party’s negotiating team is considering upgrading its offer to the right-wing Yamina party, and is examining the possibility of appointing Defense Minister Naftali Bennett as Foreign Minister.

Apparently, Blue & White is not interested in the Foreign Ministry portfolio and prefers to be given another senior ministry such as Education, which they think would be more appropriate for MK Gabi Ashkenazi.

Meanwhile, MK Ayelet Shaked (Yamina) has attacked Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on his party’s conduct of the coalition negotiations, warning that granting the Ministries of Justice and Defense to center-left parties would undo many of her party’s achievements of recent years and would skew the ideology of the unity government to the left.

“The right wing also has to preserve its values,” she told Galei Tzahal, adding that it was not unthinkable that her party would sit in the opposition if it found it impossible to come to terms with the composition of the Gantz-Netanyahu coalition. “None of us was born a minister. Opposition is not a dirty word.”

She noted the long history of cooperation between the right-wing and religious parties, but said that “this partnership will not be maintained at all costs.”