Channel 12 News commentator Amit Segal commented on the stalled negotiations between Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir during Friday’s newscast.
"In the past, Netanyahu worked for unification, each time it was someone else, Smotrich and Ben Gvir, Smotrich, [Rafi] Peretz and Ben Gvir, to weld all the fragments of these parties on the right into some single slate that would pass the electoral threshold," said Segal.
This time, however, things are different, he continued, "That is not what's happening now, we're already over a month and a half into the election campaign and Netanyahu isn't putting any effort into it. So either he was very busy with the Likud primaries and now he'll have time for it, or, and this is what I am hearing, Netanyahu is having second thoughts about the question of what is the best way for the right to run."
Segal assessed, "Netanyahu's main concern for a long time has been that if they run alone, they will not pass the threshold. But this time, a pool of six seats out of the seven Yamina seat seats has been freed up for leadership, and it feeds both Ben Gvir's and Smotrich's parties."