Likud Called the Claim "False Political Spin" on Sunday. Monday Netanyahu Stood in Lod and Said "Ben-Gvir Will Be a High-Ranking Minister With Us. Do Not Buy the Spin."

Thirty-six hours, one word used twice in opposite directions, nine days before the October 27 vote. Ben-Gvir said Sunday in Jerusalem that the PMO had given European governments an official assurance, conveyed to foreign ministers or higher, that he would be excluded from the next coalition. Likud said he "continues with his false political spin and shooting from inside the armored personnel carrier." Monday the Prime Minister promised him a senior ministry from a rally stage and told voters not to buy the spin. If it was false Sunday, what changed. The eight days before it: October 6, Likud signs a surplus-vote deal with Smotrich Religious Zionism, polling just above threshold at about five seats, and refuses one with Otzma Yehudit — which accuses Likud of planning a unity government with Gadi Eisenkot, whose reply was "we do not interfere with how the draft-dodgers bloc divides up its votes." October 7, Ben-Gvir is left off the "Saving the Right" convention; his party calls it "a series of worrying signs." October 8, Netanyahu and Smotrich appear there together before dozens of rabbis and yeshiva heads, Netanyahu calling right-wing unity "a matter of national survival." Ben-Gvir posts a photo of Smotrich with "I love every Jew." Monday on 103FM: "I was your partner, I am your partner, I love you. Why do you have to go to all kinds of countries and tell them, without Ben-Gvir?" Not one outlet called a single EU foreign ministry to ask whether the assurance was received. The whole thing was covered as whether he is hurt. The mechanism he actually named was that his voters stay home — which is the only way any of this decides an election.