Yair Lapid, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Benny Gantz. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST+EMIL SALMAN/POLL+ANDREAS GEBERT/REUTERS)
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ended speculation that he could form a national unity government with a rotation in the Prime Minister’s Office with Blue and White leader Benny Gantz on Wednesday morning, decreasing chances that the September 17 election could be canceled.
Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel and other senior Likud figures openly confirmed that a unity government between Likud and Blue and White was in the works. Forming such a coalition could assist Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein attempts to obtain support from the 80 MKs required to repeal the Knesset’s dispersal and prevent the September 17 election.
But after Netanyahu’s coalition partners on the Right complained, he had to issue two clarifications
“I respect Knesset Speaker Edelstein’s efforts to avoid another round of elections in Israel, and I will meet with him in the days ahead at his request,” Netanyahu said. “All the rest is spin. At no point was a rotation offered. There has been no contact between Likud and Blue and White at this point and I do not intend to give up on my natural partners in a right-wing government.”
Blue and White’s number two candidate, Yair Lapid rejected the idea of Netanyahu and Gantz rotating as prime minister.
“There is no problem with a unity government,” Lapid wrote on Twitter. “There is only one man, only one, who has to move aside and go deal with his indictments.”
אין בעיה ללכת לממשלת אחדות. בן אדם אחד, רק אחד, צריך לזוז הצידה. ללכת לטפל בכתבי האישום שלו. הליכוד ימנה במקומו את מי שבא לו. יולי, גדעון, ישראל. תהיה לנו ממשלת אחדות של 75 ח״כים לפחות. בראשות כחול לבן. יציבה. הגונה. עובדת.
— יאיר לפיד Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) June 26, 2019
Lapid called upon the Likud to replace Netanyahu, suggesting MK Gideon Sa’ar, Foreign Minister Israel Katz and Edelstein himself as possible replacements.
“The Likud can appoint whoever they want,” Lapid said. “We would have a unity government of at least 75 MKs that would be stable, functional and fair.”
Sources in Blue and White said they cannot support the initiative, because they believe it is intended to help Netanyahu obtain immunity from prosecution and that he is only looking to cancel the election he initiated, because his internal polls indicate that he will not win enough support to build a coalition. They said the entire effort was intended to shift blame for the unnecessary election to them.
The effort to cancel the election is supported by Kulanu, United Torah Judaism, Shas, Union of Right-wing Parties leader Rafi Peretz and by Yisrael Beytenu if a unity government of Likud, Blue and White and Yisrael Beytenu would be formed.
The move is opposed by Blue and White, Labor, Meretz and the two Arab parties.
Labor leadership candidate Stav Shaffir asked Knesset legal adviser Eyal Yinon to issue an official ruling on whether the effort to cancel the election was legal. Labor Knesset candidate Yair Fink issued a similar request to Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit.
“I have no doubt that initiative will be found to be illegal,” Shaffir said. “We will go to elections, and Bibi will go to prison. Israel is stronger than him.”
Yinon’s office said that due to the complexity and ramifications of the issue, it will take a few days to issue a formal ruling.
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