According to a report on Channel 12 News, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised Itamar Ben-Gvir, the head of the Otzma Yehudit party, that he "will not establish a government without him."
Last Friday, Netanyahu met with the heads of the Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit parties, MKs Bezalel Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, and succeeded in getting them to sign an agreement to run together in the upcoming elections, after weeks of negotiations failed to secure a tangible result.
According to the report, Netanyahu's promise was made after Ben-Gvir expressed his concern that Netanyahu would choose to form a coalition with National Unity party head Defense Minister Benny Gantz, in an effort to "save himself from a government with Ben-Gvir."
Contrary to previous reports, Netanyahu, Smotrich, and Ben-Gvir did not all meet at once. Rather, Smotrich arrived earlier to meet with Netanyahu at his home in Caesarea and left before Ben-Gvir arrived, heading back to his home in Kedumim in order to arrive before the entrance of Shabbat.
Netanyahu then invited Ben-Gvir to his home, and when the latter demurred, explaining that he was spending time with his children, the former premier extended the invitation to Ben-Gvir's children too, saying that they could spend the time in his pool while the two party heads met. Following their meeting, Ben-Gvir and his children headed back to their home in Hebron, arriving with scant minutes to spare before Shabbat. The timing was so tight that a contingent of IDF soldiers was waiting for the family at the entrance to Hebron, ready to accompany them home by foot in case Shabbat began before they reached home, obligating them to abandon their vehicle and complete the journey without transgressing the laws of the holy day.
In conversation with Israel National News on Sunday, Smotrich noted that it was quite possible to reach a deal with Ben-Gvir without actually meeting with him. "Our joint run is a technical bloc and everything depends on the results of the elections," he said. "At the end of the day, we're two separate parties with a lot of common ground which enables us to run together and maximise our chances. We also have differences in terms of our values, our style of doing things, our direction, our target communities - and that's just fine.
"Of course there are areas of friction but we're working together and giving each other the space to be different so that each of us can achieve the best possible results," he added.