BICOM

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett for coalition talks today, in what is thought to be their first face-to-face meeting in five years.

Netanyahu and Bennett have endured an apparent acrimonious relationship since the latter left his post as Netanyahu’s chief of staff in 2008. However, with Jewish Home a seemingly natural ideological coalition partner for Netanyahu’s Likud-Beitenu faction, Bennett paved the way for today’s meeting by apologising yesterday for previous comments, which had appeared to insult Netanyahu’s wife. Bennett told Army Radio, “If someone wants to criticize Netanyahu’s policies, he’s the address, not her.” It is thought that Bennett will today present a socio-economic plan to Netanyahu, including plans to lower housing costs and a bill preventing tycoons from owning too many companies. Media reports suggest that Bennett is seeking control of the Ministry of Housing and wants Jewish Home to chair the Knesset Finance Committee.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu will also continue coalition negotiations today with Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid. According to Channel Ten, if he is not appointed Foreign Minister, Lapid will take a less senior ministerial role and ensure that a professional economist is appointed Finance Minister. Haaretz reports that Likud-Beitenu will use today’s meeting to present Lapid with a new proposal for drafting ultra-Orthodox religious seminary students, which is a key issue for Yesh Atid. The plan is thought to have been constructed by head of the National Economic Council, Prof. Eugene Kandel and is apparently designed to create a consensus around the issue for all potential coalition partners. However, on Saturday evening, the spiritual leader of ultra-Orthodox party Shas, which opposes Yesh Atid’s draft plans, called Lapid “contemptible.”