Coalition talks between Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu are nearing completion, and it now seems that Avigdor Lieberman's party will get all the cabinet portfolios he is demanding from Benjamin Netanyahu: Foreign Affairs, Public Security, Tourism, National Infrastructures and Justice, which it is reserved for the incumbent minister, Daniel Friedmann.
It seems, however, that Uzi Landau will not be returning to the Public Security Ministry, where he served under Ariel Sharon from 2001 to 2003. Instead, that portfolio will be given to former deputy police chief, MK Yitzhak Aharonovitch, since Yisrael Beiteinu leaders apparently decided that handing the job to a former top police officer would look better in the eyes of the public and would limit criticism of the decision to hand the position to a lawmaker from a party whose leader is under investigation by the police.
MKs Stas Misezhnikov and Uzi Landau will be given the Infrastructure and Tourism ministries, although it has still not been decided who will get which position.
The most controversial decision that Netanyahu has made vis-a-vis Yisrael Beiteinu is his capitulation to the demand that Friedmann remain justice minister. "That's the way it works when Bibi needs Yvet more than Yvet needs Bibi," one source close to the coalition negotiations told Haaretz over the weekend, referring to Netanyahu and Liebermann by their nicknames. "Even if Ehud Barak were to join the coalition, Bibi would only be able to rely on the support of six Labor lawmakers; with Yvet, he gets all 15."
Agreeing to all of Lieberman's demands is also the price that Netanyahu must pay for his decision not to include the National Union in his coalition - a decision that leaves him with a coalition of just 61 MKs. Despite the efforts of his closest advisers to warn him off forming such a narrow coalition, Netanyahu is concerned that his government will be seen as too extremist if it includes Kahane supporters from the ranks of the National Union. In addition, he cannot meet their coalition demands.
"If he agrees to authorize the settlements that the National Union has requested, he will do irreparable damage to his relationship with the State Department," another source involved in the coalition negotiations said. "Under these circumstances, it's clearly in Netanyahu's best interests to agree to Lieberman's demands."
In addition to Yisrael Beiteinu's ministerial demands, Netanyahu has also agreed to the party's other conditions for joining the Likud-led government. These include the drafting of bills that are close to Yisrael Beiteinu's ultimate goal of legislating a clear line between religion and the state.
While there will be no clause requiring Israeli Arabs to take an oath of allegiance, the coalition teams are working on laws that would deny National Insurance Institute payments to the families of terrorists with Israeli citizenship. In addition, the teams are discussing legal means to halt the parliamentary pension received by former MK Azmi Bishara, who fled overseas in the face of a possible criminal investigation over alleged illegal contact with an enemy agent.
The one issue over which Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu have not yet reached agreement is the introduction of civil marriage. Legislation toward this end is aimed at enabling marriage for Israeli couples who are not Jewish according to religious law. The vast majority of these couples come from a Russian-speaking background. This is a highly sensitive issue for Netanyahu's other coalition partners - religious and ultra-Orthodox parties such as United Torah Judaism and Shas. Sources in Yisrael Beiteinu say that they will not accept a vague commitment from Likud to pass laws allowing two non-Jews to marry. The parties are continuing to seek a formula that would be palatable to the religious parties while at the same time providing Yisrael Beiteinu with an honorable way of retreating from its entrenched position.
