Why Netanyahu doesn't need the Zionist Camp yet
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would like to add the Zionist Camp to his coalition, but not at the price of freezing settlement construction or pushing the HaBayit HaYehudi Party out of the government.
For over a year, Zionist Camp leader and Knesset member Isaac (Buji) Herzog has denied the existence of intensive negotiations he held with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding joining Netanyahu’s narrow right-wing government (61 coalition members out of 120 Knesset seats). While Al-Monitor reported on the existence of these contacts, Herzog continued to insist that nothing of the kind had taken place. Now it emerges that, indeed, negotiations had been held over a long period, involving various mediators, detailed proposals, joint memorandums of understanding and long-term plans.
One of the first facilitators of these negotiations was acclaimed American-Israeli Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan, who enjoys access to all the leaders of the Israeli political parties and often mediates between them. Subsequently, various political sources entered the picture, including Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, who never hid his hopes for widening of the government from the day it was founded.
