Smotrich offers Winter a ministry as Netanyahu works the phones past midnight

A recording from Shilat, a 110,000 figure at the High Court, and a Likud leader dialing small parties: the last days before the vote are being fought inside…

Smotrich offers Winter a ministry as Netanyahu works the phones past midnight — Bezalel Smotrich offered Ofer Winter a position as a minister in the Defense Ministry in exchange for withdrawing from the election race [^1]. That is the shape of the bargain now circulating on the right, and it is not being denied. What the outlets do with it differs. c14 and Maariv read the episode as Winter wavering, a candidate whose doubts betray weakness; i24 and a second c14 account put the offer itself at the center, making Winter the object of a trade rather than a player [^2]. No source reports Winter publicly changing his position — only that he has not settled it. The same night, Benjamin Netanyahu met Moti Laitner, chairman of the "Haredi Public" party, at Likud headquarters after midnight to press him to withdraw from the Knesset race [^3]. Shmuel Rosner put a price on that arithmetic on 103fm: if the Winter and Handel-Zalicha parties both fail the electoral threshold, 8 mandates get redistributed; if only one fails, 4 [^4]. Elsewhere the machinery grinds on. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara told the High Court of Justice today that the number of draft evaders violating the law has reached 110,000, and floated additional operative instructions to revoke financial benefits [^5]. In the Netanyahu trial, attorney Amit Hadad pressed Avichai Mandelblit about receiving and editing interview drafts — "Did you write an interview with yourself?" [^6]. And a recording from closed-door meetings of the "Yashar" party, exposed last night at a home gathering in Shilat, catches Osherat Gani Gonen saying: "If we are less than 61, we will form the government." Asked how, she answered: "Only if the Arabs support it." [^7] The contradiction is not hers alone. The change bloc agrees on replacing Netanyahu and divides on the means — Liberman wants a Zionist majority, Eisenkot is open to a minority government . Whether a bloc that cannot say aloud what it will do after the count can hold together until the count is the question nobody has answered. Israeli jets fly simulated strike path to Iran's border; Sisi draws a line on Yemen — Dozens of Israeli fighter jets and refueling aircra