‘Significant progress’ in 2 hour Netanyahu Gantz meeting

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz took “significant strides” toward creating a national unity government, President Reuven Rivlin said as the meeting between them stretched beyond two hours.

Rivlin left Netanyahu and Gantz alone for half an hour. They decided not to detail what progress was made inside. Negotiating teams for Blue and White and Likud will meet on Tuesday and Netanyahu and Gantz will meet again with Rivlin on Wednesday.

“Now the first challenge is building a channel of direct dialogue out of trust between the two sides,” Rivlin said.

Rivlin said following his consultations with the nine parties that crossed the electoral threshold, there is not a clear candidate to form the government.

“The nation expects you to find a solution and prevent additional elections, even if it means paying a personal or ideological price,” Rivlin said.

Earlier, 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. 

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 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.”

Gantz held his first meeting since the election with Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Liberman on Monday afternoon. They released a joint statement afterward that they “exchanged their views and impressions” and that they would meet again when there is a need.

Gantz faced criticism for not meeting with Liberman before he made his recommendation to the president to not support either Gantz or Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Liberman wrote on Facebook following the meeting that the main problem in forming a government was deciding who would be prime minister first in a unity government. He said that in the meeting, he merely reiterated the views he expressed throughout the election campaign.

He said he called on Gantz to form a secular national-unity government of Blue and White, Likud and Yisrael Beytenu with a rotation in the Prime Minister’s Office that would not include extremists. He also called for the same far reaching changes on matters of religion and state that he called for during the election.

Liberman expressed hope that Rivlin would find a solution to the dispute over who would go first in a rotation.

“I hope a stable unity government will be formed soon,” he said.

Liberman spoke with Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein following Blue and White’s initiative to dismiss him after the Knesset inauguration. He explained to the speaker that as long as the situation isn’t clear, Yisrael Beytenu does not have any interest in relieving Edelstein of his duties, so it will not back a motion to choose a new speaker promoted by Blue and White.