JERUSALEM (JTA) — Benjamin Netanyahu said coalition talks are continuing and that discussing negotiations in public weaken the party’s standing.
The prime minister-designate asked party members at a Likud faction meeting Monday not to talk about Cabinet appointments with the media.
Israeli newspapers are reporting that Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman will be named Israel’s next foreign minister and that his party also will get the public security, tourism, national infrastructures and justice portfolios.
On Sunday, Labor leader Ehud Barak told Netanyahu that he would not join his governing coalition.
"There is no basis for opening a dialogue on the Labor Party to join a coalition due to the sweeping adoption of the demands of Yisrael Beiteinu’s chairman Avigdor Lieberman," Barak said, according to news reports.
Meanwhile, sources have told Israel media that Netanyahu will present a narrow right-wing government to President Shimon Peres next week.
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