Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has announced he will continue holding the Foreign Ministry and other cabinet portfolios for the Machane Tzioni party. Mr. Netanyahu announced this following the breakdown of talks with MK Yitzchak Herzog, who announced his Machane Tzioni party would not be joining the coalition government.

Nevertheless, PM Netanyahu continues to exhibit an air of confidence that Herzog will join, reaffirming he is not giving away the Foreign Ministry position. However, Herzog has stated repeatedly that the door to entering the coalition at present has closed, stating with certainty this is not going to occur.

What might occur however is that Herzog and six others who stand behind him, may enter the coalition and break away from Machane Tzioni. All signs signal that Herzog has burned himself as party leader by entering into talks with Netanyahu so leaving may extend his tenure as a party leader in Knesset and he could find himself serving as Israel’s Foreign Minister.

For the time begin Herzog continues signaling talks have ended and PM Netanyahu continues saving the FM post for him when he decides to make the shift form opposition to coalition. Simultaneously, Shelly Yacimovich and other Machane Tzioni MKs are pushing to move up party primaries in the hope of unseating Herzog. Herzog would prefer waiting another 18 months for the primaries to occur.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)