Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri gathered last Thursday for a meeting with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The goal: to put pressure on the chairman of religious Zionism, so that he would agree to add former minister Gideon Sa'ar to the war cabinet, without himself being a part of it.
Netanyahu joined the pressure: "If we don't bring Gideon in, there is a danger to the elections," he said. SmotRich refused, but at some point the conversation between the parties heated up to the point of a sharp confrontation.