Roundup: Israel's Netanyahu seeks to court far-right lawmaker in bid to enlarge ruling coalition

One year into the reign of the current Israeli government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to court far-right lawmaker Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday amid attempts to enlarge his government and stabilize his ruling coalition.

After a week of contacts with chief of the Labor party, Isaac Herzog, over the formation of a new unity government, Netanyahu met with hawkish lawmaker Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday afternoon in a surprise move, and paved the latter's path into the administration with his ultranationalist Israel Beytenu (Israel is our home) party instead of the Labor party.

There have been sporadic reports in the past year of contacts between Netanyahu and Herzog, head of the center-left Labor party.

These reports have materialized and became concrete in the past week, with Channel 10 revealing on Sunday a recording of Herzog telling party members that a "unique opportunity" was created to advance a diplomatic move with the Palestinians, listing it as a cause to join the government and lead a "big move".

Herzog had also lauded, along with Netanyahu, statements made on Tuesday by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi on the importance of advancing peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, with the mediation of Egypt and other Arab states in the region.

Israeli pundits speculated al-Sissi's comments were not coincidental to reports of increasing efforts to form a unity government, setting the ground for the entry of the Labor party into the ruling coalition, despite harsh criticism leveled by Herzog's opponents within his own party, who objected to joining Netanyahu's hardline right-wing government.

Late Tuesday, reports surfaced in media outlets citing sources close to Netanyahu from the Likud party, according to which Netanyahu offered Lieberman to join the government, but Lieberman had declined to do so.

Lieberman rebuked the report, saying this is a "spin" used to "whitewash" the entry of the Labor party into the government. However, on early Wednesday, Lieberman said he would be willing to consider entering the government under two conditions: receiving the defense portfolio, and legislating a death penalty law for terrorists.

Netanyahu and Lieberman met on Wednesday afternoon, releasing a statement saying that the two had set up negotiation teams to work out the details.

A high-ranking political source familiar with the talks told Xinhua that Netanyahu had offered the Defense Minister to Lieberman, which the latter accepted, paving the road for him to join the government.

Another source told the Ynet news website that leaders of both parties reached agreements and hope to end the negotiations by Friday morning.

Less than two hours after the announcement of Netanyahu's meeting with Lieberman, Herzog convened a televised press conference in Jerusalem, in which he said he is suspending the talks with Netanyahu on a unity government.

Some pundits and analysts suggest Netanyahu meant to add Lieberman all along, while humiliating the Labor party in the process. Others believe he had "tried out the field" on both ends, and made political maneuvers along the way.

"I believe that Netanyahu truly aimed and believed in acting to stabilize the government and coalition, be it with Lieberman or the Labor party," Prof. Avraham Diskin, a political scientist from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told Xinhua during a conference call on Wednesday, leaning towards the latter interpretation as the most plausible.

"Netanyahu's belief is that in both cases his government will be more stable and therefore we delay the next elections," Diskin said.

Since establishing his government, after his Likud party won the majority of votes in the 2015 elections, Netanyahu has been working to enlarge his coalition, which held only a narrow 61-59 lead over the opposition in parliament.

"Although a 61-member majority is durable, it's hard to run the coalition like this on a day to day basis," Diskin said.

Netanyahu and Lieberman had worked together in the past, and have ran a joint list in the 2013 elections. Lieberman had, among others, served as the Israeli Foreign Minister in Netanyahu's previous government.

Speaking in his second press conference of the day in Tel Aviv, after Netanyahu announced he would pursue negotiations with Liberman, Herzog said he had reached "significant accomplishments" in the talks with Netanyahu but that the Prime Minister had refused to put the agreements on paper.

Herzog also blamed Netanyahu for giving up a "historic opportunity" to bring about a breakthrough in the peace process by recruiting Liberman into the government as defense minister.

Meanwhile, Likud Minister Benny Begin criticized Netanyahu' s decision to appoint Liberman as defense minister as "delusional" and displaying "a lack of responsibility toward the defense establishment and the citizens of Israel." Endit