The secret of how the second Netanyahu government arose
(Yossi Verter-Haaretz).One of the first telephone calls that Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu made on Tuesday after the votes at the Labor Party convention were counted was to Labor MK Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, who is slated to be minister of industry, trade and labor in the new government.
The two celebrated as they recalled their shared secret - the secret of how the second Netanyahu government came into being.
It began last Wednesday at a house on a quiet street in Azor, near Tel Aviv, when Netanyahu and Ben-Eliezer sneaked into the home of Netanyahu adviser Shaya Segal, who is also a friend of Ben-Eliezer, through a side door.
The visit came on the heels of several discussions between Netanyahu and Labor Party leader Ehud Barak. It was Barak who suggested that the Likud leader speak to Ben-Eliezer, who opposed joining a Netanyahu government. If Ben-Eliezer could be convinced, Barak said, Labor would be in the government.
In Azor, Ben-Eliezer suggested involving Histadrut labor federation chief Ofer Eini. A meeting was then scheduled among the union leader, Netanyahu and Barak at Barak's high-rise apartment in Tel Aviv.
Eini left that meeting in favor of Labor joining the government, and Netanyahu then publicly asked Labor to come on board. That was followed by Barak's call to convene a party convention, a process that culminated in Tuesday's vote in favor of joining the coalition.
Though it went against his nature, Ben-Eliezer maintained his silence for a week. But had he not given the green light to Barak and Netanyahu at Shaya Segal's house in Azor last week, it is very doubtful that the prime minister-designate would have been able to present a government that included Labor - something he now intends to do next Monday.
