Former Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Liberman will be named defense minister and is bringing his Yisrael Beiteinu party into the Knesset’s governing coalition, Israel’s Channel 2 reported Wednesday.

Yisrael Beiteinu’s six seats will mean that the governing coalition comprises 67 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, making it much more stable than the current 61. Liberman will replace Moshe Ya’alon in the important post. Another Yisrael Beiteinu politician will also be named the Minister of Immigrant Absorption, The Jerusalem Post reported.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Wednesday afternoon with Avigdor Lieberman,” a Likud spokesman told Channel 2. “The meeting was businesslike, conducted in good spirit, and in the end, negotiating teams were established.”

In addition to the defense ministry, Liberman is believed to have also demanded a new law allowing the death penalty for convicted terrorists, a measure that Netanyahu and the Likud opposed last year. It is unclear whether that demand was agreed upon by the parties.

Liberman was not the favorite to bring about the growth of the coalition—leader of the opposition Isaac Herzog had been the subject of intense speculation over the past few days that he would bring his Zionist Union party into the government, despite the intense objections to the move by most of his party. Zionist Union MK Stav Shaffir called Herzog’s actions “unforgivable” and called for his resignation.  “It is now clear that Bibi used Herzog in order to bring Liberman into the government,” she wrote on Facebook. “A leader who cannot differentiate between the Bibi of a peace agreement and the Bibi who gives the defense portfolio to Liberman is not worthy to be head of the Labor Party.”

Herzog announced that he would refuse to serve in the government with Liberman. “If Netanyahu wants to bring Liberman into the government, then let him do it,” he said in an address on Wednesday. “We will take them apart from the opposition.”

[Photo: Yonatan Sindel / Flash90]