Aviad Bachar Rejects Likud Reserve Slot as Kahlon Talks Stall

Likud offered Aviad Bachar, a survivor of the October 7 massacre in Kibbutz Be'eri, a reserved place on its Knesset slate for the coming election, but he declined. Bachar fought the terrorists and survived after his wife, Dana, and son, Carmel, were murdered; he and his daughter Hadar were wounded and rescued by Yahalom troops. Reports said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also sought to recruit former finance minister Moshe Kahlon, but those contacts have not succeeded so far. The approaches follow the Likud Central Committee's authorization of eight realistic reserve slots for Netanyahu.