Sources close to Otzma Yehudit chairman MK Itamar Ben-Gvir claim that Ben-Gvir was offerred a deal by Jewish Home chairwoman Interior Minister Ayelet Shaled under which the two of them would come together after the November elections to jointly present their demands to the Likud party.
According to the allegations, Shaked suggested that she would not agree to enter the government without Ben-Gvir, while in return she asked him not to campaign against her so she will receive enough right-wing votes to pass the electoral threshold.
It was also reported that the offer was passed to Ben-Gvir through an intermediary in recent days, against the background of Defense Minister Benny Gantz's desire to enter the Netanyahu government and push Ben-Gvir out.
According to the sources, Ben-Gvir rejected the offer out-of-hand. "I don't trust you, you transfer votes from the right to the left. In any case, you will not pass the electoral threshold and I have no intention of making a deal against Netanyahu together with you," Ben-Gvir said in a message to Shaked.
He also made it clear to the mediator that he knows that the question of whether he will enter the government depends solely on the size of the party list in which he is running.
"Ayelet Shaked is not a partner for us, and whoever is still sitting in the government supported by the Muslim Brotherhood cannot be a partner for anything," he concluded.