Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's premiership is now officially the second longest in Israeli history. Over the weekend Netanyahu hit the symbolic milestone of 2,433 days, which had been held by the late Yitzhak Shamir, whose tenure spanned from 1983 to 1992 (with a two-year pause in 1984-86) and totaled 2,432 days. Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, logged the most hours as premier, spending 4,575 days in the Prime Minister's Office between 1949 and 1963 (with a two-year break in 1954-55). Meanwhile, some three weeks after Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman agreed to unite the Likud and Yisrael Beytenu candidate lists for the coming Knesset elections, Lieberman's party will begin its candidate selection process this week. In late November, Yisrael Beytenu's organizing committee will conduct interviews with those vying to be among their representatives on the joint list. Netanyahu has vowed to secure the party a few spots high up on the joint list in such a way that would reflect Yisrael Beytenu's current 15-member Knesset representation. Yair Lapid, the journalist who left his position as the host of the Channel 2 Friday night news magazine to run for the Knesset earlier this year, said over the weekend that his party had no particular allegiance to either the Right or the Left ahead of the coalition talks set to begin after the Jan. 22 elections. Speaking at a campaign event in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, Lapid said his party, Yesh Atid ("There is a Future"), would not rule out membership in any coalition as long as the newly elected prime minister met the conditions set by the party. "I am sorry to inform all other parties that we are in the bag for no particular faction," Lapid said. The left-wing Meretz Party is set to elect its Knesset candidate list on Sunday, although only those who make it to the first six slots are expected to have a real shot at winning a Knesset seat due to the party's low poll numbers. Chairwoman Zahava Gal-On has already secured the top slot on the list.
