Report: Likud Will Pay Off Zehut Debt If Party Quits Campaign

In the latest move to salvage a right-wing government in September, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been pressuring Zehut party head Moshe Feiglin to give up his apparently futile run for the Knesset.

Netanyahu’s Likud has offered to cover the 3 million shekels of debt that Zehut incurred during the last election in April if he will agree to withdraw from the campaign, according to Channel 13.

Feiglin was quoted as saying in response, “Instead of fighting me, let’s help me get into the Knesset.”

Last week, Zehut filed its independent list with the Central Election Committee after weeks of efforts to work out a merger with other right-wing parties failed. Polls show that the party will fall far short of the electoral threshold, as it did in April, thus depriving Netanyahu’s potential coalition of indispensible Knesset seats.