MKs Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir are conducting negotiations and have yet to reach an agreement on a joint run in the elections for the 25th Knesset with 98 days to the elections.
The one managing the negotiation team for Smotrich's is the former head of the Binyamin Council Yehuda Eliyahu, and the one managing the contacts from Ben-Gvir's side is his attorney Chanamel Dorfman.
In the past day, the Otzma Yehudit Party submitted an outline for the top ten of a united list. As part of the outline, four places will be allocated to Itamar Ben-Gvir’s people, four places to Smotrich’s people who will be elected in his party's primaries, and two places will be allocated to Avi Maoz, chairman of the Noam party, and Yosef Brodny, chairman of the Jewish Home party.
Officials in the Religious Zionist party stated, "It is a shame that there are those who prefer to conduct the negotiations in the media and harm public trust. We will do everything quietly and behind closed doors so negotiations can reach a conclusion and real news to the public can be made."
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Benny Gantz clarified yesterday that he will not sit in a government with former Prime Minister Netanyahu. In an interview with Kan 11, the chairman of the Blue and White-New Hope Party said that he received offers to become prime minister both in a rotation and without a rotation to save the country from more elections. According to him, he received the last offer the day before the dissolution of the Knesset.
As for the coalition he will try to form, Gantz does not see Itamar Ben-Gvir and Smotrich as partners. In a meeting with the Ra'am Party, he said: "I don't want to lean on them, I'm ready to give them space on the assumption that I'm broad and stable enough."
Defense Minister Benny Gantz added that, unlike Prime Minister Yair Lapid, he can speak and act in cooperation with all parts of the Knesset as well as the haredim. He said, "I am in regular contact with them, I respect them a lot. I think they are a significant, important part of Israeli society. I really hope they will be part of the next government.”