Leader of the far-right Zehut party Moshe Feiglin told Army Radio on Wednesday that he had met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that the two were hammering out a deal under which Feiglin would drop out of the Sept. 17 Knesset election in exchange for a ministerial position in the next government, and if cannabis were legalized.
"I will bring the deal to the Zehut leadership, and we'll decide. An unexpected opportunity has arisen to turn what appeared to be a failure into a great success," Feiglin said.
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Feiglin's statements on Wednesday contradicted remarks he made a day earlier at an election event at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds, where he stressed that his party would not drop out of the Knesset race. Some 1,000 Zehut supporters attended the Tel Aviv event.
On Monday, Israeli media reported that the Likud was pressuring Zehut and Otzma Yehudit, both small right-wing parties, to drop out of the national election. Neither of the two parties – Otzma Yehudit and Zehut – is expected to gain enough votes to enter the Knesset, and the Likud is seeking to prevent right-wing votes from being wasted.
Likud negotiator Natan Eshel has reportedly pressured Otzma Yehudit Party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir to drop out of the race, while Likud officials are said to have offered Feiglin an economy-related ministry position, to cover all of his campaign costs to date and legalize personal use of marijuana – one of Zehut's central campaign promises – if his party withdraws.
Part of this article is reprinted with permission from JNS.org.
