Amid the attempts to form a government and the fear of a split in the Likud, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with MK Gideon Sa'ar at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on Monday.
According to a Likud statement, the meeting dealt with the political issue and with the efforts to establish a national unity government and "to prevent the formation of a dangerous minority government.”
Over the past several days, Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer submitted two bills that may entice Likud MKs to defect from the bloc of 55 right-wing MKs.
The first bill concerns the application of sovereignty over the Jordan Valley. The second bill deals with the issue of a Knesset party splitting up and aims to make a such a move simpler to carry out.
According to the current law, a third of a faction is required in order for a party to split in two. In the case of the Likud such a move would require 11 Knesset members. According to Forer's bill, however, a faction can be split even if just seven Knesset members from that party agree to a split.
Earlier this week, Gideon Sa'ar, on Twitter, attacked Prime Minister Netanyahu and his associates, following a tweet by Dr. Gadi Taub that was retweeted by the Prime Minister’s son, Yair Netanyahu.
"Once again, despicable conspiratorial storylines about me are being distributed from Balfour. It is difficult to understand how this helps the Likud or the State of Israel," Sa'ar attacked, with Balfour being a reference to Balfour Street in Jerusalem, where the Prime Minister’s Residence is located.
Dr. Gadi Taub’s tweet which raised Sa'ar's ire said, "I heard the hypothesis that the following trick is being concocted: Blue and White will threaten to establish a minority government, and then Sa’ar will try to persuade one third of the faction, headed by him, that they must save the state from Oslo 2 and will come in riding a white horse towards a unity government with Blue and White.”
"Of course all this is completely unfounded. But as they said at the back gate once: I happened to find out and I convey it out of kindness," Taub added.
Yair Netanyahu retweeted Taub’s tweet, but appeared to later deleted his retweet. However, Sa'ar attached to his tweet a screenshot from Yair Netanyahu's Twitter account containing the deleted post.
Netanyahu and Sa’ar have had a rocky relationship, as the Prime Minister has several times claimed that Sa'ar had conspired against him and concocted a trick which would have seen President Reuven Rivlin tasking Sa’ar with the formation of the government instead of Netanyahu.
Sa'ar has rejected Netanyahu's claims and has made clear that he stands behind Netanyahu as the Likud’s candidate for prime minister.
Sa'ar unexpectedly stepped down from politics before the 2015 Knesset election, citing personal reasons, but announced in early 2017 he was returning to political life and would run with the Likud.
He recently hinted in a tweet that he may run against Netanyahu for the leadership of the Likud whenever the next primaries are held.