Get email notification for articles from Michael Hauser Tov Follow May. 25, 2021 12:03 PM Yisrael Beiteinu and Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid party said Tuesday they had agreed on a coalition deal that would help form a new government and replace Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister after 12 straight years at the helm. Under the agreement, members of Avigdor Lieberman’s right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu would be finance minister and head the Knesset Finance Committee. The party would also receive two other portfolios, including the Negev and Galilee Development Ministry. In separate talks between Lapid and Naftali Bennett, the leader of the right-wing Yamina party, Bennett demanded the Finance Committee and did not agree that Lieberman's party would receive both that panel and the Finance Ministry. The Negev and Galilee Development Ministry was originally intended for Yamina's Ayelet Shaked, who was set to receive an expanded Interior Ministry portfolio including the Negev and Galilee ministry.