Liberman, Sa'ar hold concrete merger negotiations - report

Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman, in a meeting in early July, offered United Right chairman MK Gideon Sa’ar a concrete proposal to merge the two opposition parties ahead of the next election, Channel 12’s Dafna Liel reported on Sunday.

According to the report, Liberman offered Sa’ar two spots out of every 10 in the merged party’s list but insisted that Sa’ar’s party cease to exist as an independent unit and that his MKs merge completely into the new party. Sa’ar reportedly agreed on the conditions that the party succeeds in bringing on enough players to challenge the Likud for hegemony of Israel’s right-wing camps and that these players, such as former prime minister Naftali Bennett, also agree to a complete merger.

According to the report, Liberman also agreed to maintain the new constellation for a second election and agreed to consider holding an open primary election for the party list.

Sa'ar reportedly told Liberman that he would respond "within days," but such a response was not given.

Sa’ar confirmed to Liel that the meeting took place, adding that the two had met again since then. However, Sa’ar denied the report about details of the negotiations, such as placements of MKs in the list. Rather, the two discussed “issues of principle,” including security, “political strategy,” the “need for a broad and stable unity government,” and “the chances to create a large unification of all of the liberal right-wing camp.”

The report came after growing calls from within the Likud for Sa’ar to join the government, possibly replacing Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Gallant and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have publicly feuded over war-related issues. Sa’ar joined the government in October as part of MK Benny Gantz’s National Unity party, but he broke away from Gantz in March and immediately left the government, criticizing what he viewed as insufficient aggression against Hamas and Hezbollah and his inability to influence the decision-making process.

Sa'ar did not reject the option of joining current government

In an interview on Channel 12’s Meet the Press on Saturday, Sa’ar did not reject the option of joining the current government but said that he had yet to be approached with an offer from Netanyahu. Sa’ar stressed that he would not reject any options out of hand and would decide according to what he believed to be in the country’s best interests. Makor Rishon reported on Sunday that Justice Minister Yariv Levin was mediating between Sa’ar and the Prime Minister’s Office on the matter.