Benjamin Netanyahu to meet Naftali Bennett to woo Yamina into coalition

Bennett to Post: Not worried about Rafi Peretz joining without the rest of Yamina

By GIL HOFFMAN
Defense Minister Naftali Bennett at the Defense Ministry on February 25, 2020. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Defense Minister Naftali Bennett at the Defense Ministry on February 25, 2020.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met by video conference with Yamina leader Naftali Bennett for an hour-and-a-half on Wednesday evening, amid threats from the right-wing party to remain outside the coalition.
Netanyahu sent messages to Yamina ahead of the meeting that he wanted the party in his government. When it ended, Likud and Yamina issued a joint statement that it went well and they would meet again soon.
In a press conference on his Facebook page, Yamina leader Naftali Bennett said his party would decide whether to enter the government based on its policies, not portfolios.
"I came to politics to have influence, so we need to decide if on balance we believe in the government and how much influence we would have," Bennett said. "We want to be in the government, but we have to see its direction and if we would have enough of a say."
Bennett said there were no internal agreements inside Yamina about portfolios. He said internal issues would straighten themselves out.
"I wasn’t born a minister and neither were my colleagues," he said. "We can support sovereignty regardless. We won’t enter the government at any price."
Likud sources said one possibility being considered was to break up Yamina and have only part of it enter the coalition. Responding to a question from The Jerusalem Post about what he would do if Yamina MK Rafi Peretz entered the government without the rest of the party, Bennett said he was not concerned about that possibility.
"I am in touch with Rabbi Rafi, and everything will be OK," he said.
Yamina officials said the party's MKs were united and coordinated. One possibility discussed among the MKs was lowering the party's demand from four portfolios to two, plus a deputy minister and a committee chairman.
Meanwhile, Bennett formally requested on Wednesday that his salary be cut by 20 percent over the next six months. When both the Prime Minister's Office and the Knesset informed him that such a move would require extensive bureaucracy, he decided to immediately donate the money on his own to needy families.