Ayelet Shaked explores a joint run with Avigdor Liberman

Former justice minister Ayelet Shaked is holding informal talks with Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Liberman about a possible joint run in the coming election, according to a report in Yedioth Ahronoth. The move comes after her political break with former ally and ex-prime minister Naftali Bennett became final, following Bennett’s partnership with Yair Lapid, which ended any realistic prospect of the two running together again.

When Bennett was recently asked about Shaked in an interview with Channel 12 News, he avoided making any commitment, saying, “Ayelet Shaked was an excellent minister and loves the country. I am not forming lists now.”

At the same time, Shaked is trying to rebuild support among her original base, moderate Religious Zionist voters and people connected to the historical Mafdal on the political periphery. On Tuesday night she held a closed and significant meeting with a group of close political activists identified with her, including a broad network of deputy mayors and local council members from across the country who previously represented the Jewish Home party.

That constituency has recently felt politically homeless, caught between Bennett’s Yamina bloc, which moved leftward into cooperation with Lapid, and the Religious Zionist Party on the more hardline ultra-nationalist wing. According to the report, Shaked told those present that the group’s strength on the ground is equivalent to about three Knesset seats, a potential bargaining chip in talks with Liberman over senior placements on Yisrael Beiteinu’s slate.