Likud Sources: Netanyahu Offered Yacimovich Finance Portfolio

Likud sources said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered Labor Party leader Shelly Yacimovich the finance portfolio in a meeting held at the Prime Minister's Residence on Friday.

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Yacimovich turned down Netanyahu's offer to join the incoming government coalition, the Likud sources said. The meeting was the second between the two political figures since the Knesset election in January.

Likud sources stated that Netanyahu is interested in creating an alternative axis of coalition parties that will include Labor and the ultra-Orthodox parties in order to weaken the bargaining power of Yesh Atid's Yair Lapid and Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett in forming a new government coalition. According to these sources, the prime minister is trying to entice Yacimovich with the Finance Ministry portfolio that is close to her heart.

However, after the end of her meeting with Netanyahu on Friday, Yacimovich clarified that even in the face of pressure from within her party the Labor Party would not join the government coalition. She stated that the meeting between her and Netanyahu was conducted in pleasant atmosphere but that the large disparities in their worldviews remained the same.