“Barring any external factors, this government could last two or three years,” Tourism Minister Yariv Levin assessed in an interview with Al-Monitor. Levin, now the Likud minister closest to the prime minister, was Benjamin Netanyahu’s point person in the coalition negotiations to expand the government that ended with the surprising entry of Avigdor Liberman as defense minister. “We realized that with a 61-seat coalition, we’d be approaching elections very quickly,” said Levin, explaining the political maneuvering to stabilize the government. He made it clear that as far as Netanyahu is concerned, there would be further attempts to bring all or part of the Zionist Camp into the government too.
The rest of the interview follows: