Netanyahu: I will be given two chances to form government, plan to succeed

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned his Likud MKs in a closed-door meeting on Monday that the current political dispute could take months to resolve.

Netanyahu told the MKs that the most likely scenario if the current situation does not change is that President Reuven Rivlin would ask either him or Blue and White leader Benny Gantz to form a government and then the other would be given a chance and they both would fail. He said that only after both failures would he be given another chance and succeed.

According to MKs present in the meeting, Netanyahu said that whoever gets the mandate third would definitely form a government so it would better to avoid months of political tension and form a government now. 

Rivlin invited Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Gantz to meet at his residents Monday night to discuss the formation of a new government. The meeting will be closed to the press in order to facilitate a private conversation that could make progress toward ending the current political stalemate. Rivlin concluded his consultation Monday without a conclusive result.

Netanyahu told MKs in the open portion of the faction meeting that the coming Jewish year should be a year of unity. Speaking minutes before receiving Rivlin’s invitation, he called on Blue and White leader Benny Gantz to meet with him as soon as possible and discuss forming a coalition together.

“The only government that can be formed is a broad unity government,” Netanyahu said. “To get that government, we need to talk.”