Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Friday afternoon with Yamina Chairman Naftali Bennett in the hopes of swaying him to join his government.
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Bennett is expected to meet with Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid on Saturday night.
Likud officials were reportedly furious at Netanyahu for allegedly offering Bennett top positions within the party, according to Hebrew-language daily Yedioth Ahronoth.
"It's a disgraceful proposal that indicates a loss of nerves. It's putting the Likud movement up for sale in exchange for Netanyahu's seat," an unnamed top Likud official was quoted as saying.
However, another senior faction member dismissed the report, stressing that Netanyahu's offer "died before it was born" as Bennett rejected it "outright."
On Thursday, Mansour Abbas, leader of the Islamist Ra'am party, delivered a speech announcing he will decide in the coming days which candidate to support for the premiership.
If Abbas supports Netanyahu for the role – as some reports suggest he will – it could put Netanyahu in a tough negotiating position.
Additional reports have suggested that Lapid has agreed to a premiership rotation deal, conceding the first term to Bennett. Netanyahu would find it difficult to top this offer.
Israel Hayom has learned, meanwhile, that officials in Bennett's camp have formulated an outline, whereby the Yamina leader would join a rotation government with Netanyahu if he were the first to serve as prime minister. To bypass the possibility that the High Court of Justice would order Netanyahu to resign because he would no longer be prime minister and is under indictment, the coalition would push through a special override clause to ensure Netanyahu can hold the post of alternate prime minister without the court's interference.
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According to the outline, Bennett would also promise to bring Sa'ar and his party along as outside support, as Yamina seven seats alone would not carry Netanyahu's bloc over the 61-seat majority threshold. The belief is that Bennett will be able to convince Sa'ar to support the initiative, because Bennett, whose candidacy Sa'ar supports, would be the first to serve as premier under the rotation agreement.
The overriding belief is that Netanyahu will reject the proposal because sans immunity from conviction, he will have no interest in agreeing to give Bennett the first spot in a rotation. It is also entirely uncertain that Bennett can grant Netanyahu the immunity he desires through the legislative process. Additionally, Bennett will have no way of assuring that Sa'ar's coalition security blanket will remain in place once the premiership rotates back to Netanyahu. There's very little chance that Netanyahu will put himself at the mercy of Bennett and Sa'ar in such a scenario.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
