According to a report, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is negotiating a deal to unite with the Bayit Yehudi party in the upcoming elections, to run on a joint Likud/Bayit Yehudi list. With political nemesis Naftali Bennet out of the party, the door is open for Mr. Netanyahu to try to improve his position in the upcoming election by joining with the dati leumi party.

With Likud’s Central Committee of approximately 3000 members convening this week to vote on the party’s lineup, Mr. Netanyahu has requested that he receive three seats instead of one as he has now, a seat that he can decide the person filling the slot. Increasing it to three provides him flexibility in negotiations to try to unite with another party amid threatening reports that Yesh Atid and Chosen Yisrael may unite, with polls showing such a scenario would bump Likud to the second slot instead of the first slot and forming the next coalition government.

The poll probed the scenarios whereby the two would unite and join former chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi. The result; Chosen Yisrael and Yesh Atid receive 32 seats and the Likud is pushed into second place with two seats. This would mean that Likud’s leader, Mr. Netanyahu, would not serve as prime minister in the next government.

There are many rumors and denials, but what is certain is that Mr. Netanyahu, a seasoned politician, reads the political map and is well-aware of the threats the party faces in the upcoming election for 21st Knesset and one may opine that measures will be taken to increase Likud’s electoral strength in that election.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)