Likud, Blue and White teams meet for first time after Gantz gets mandate

The negotiating teams for Blue and White and Likud met on Sunday for the first time since the former’s leader Benny Gantz was tasked with forming the next government, and three hours before he was due to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Blue and White’s top negotiator is Yoram Turbowicz, who was joined by Shalom Shlomo. Tourism Minister Yariv Levin is the head of the Likud negotiating team, and he brought a Likud attorney, Michael Rabilio, with him.

The sides need to make a breakthrough on one of two issues in order to start real negotiations. The first is the matter of whether Netanyahu or Gantz will be prime minister first in a rotation government, and the second is whether Netanyahu will continue to negotiate as the leader of the whole religious-Right bloc or just as the head of Likud.

Progress is unlikely to be made on this matter until Gantz and Netanyahu meet.

At the meeting’s start, Levin said he represents the 55-seat right-wing bloc.

“We certainly come with goodwill,” Levin said. “As we constantly said, there is no way other than a unity government according to the president’s plan” – which would allow Netanyahu to take an extended leave while handling his legal troubles – “and therefore we think it would be right to hold quick, accelerated negotiations to reach an agreement.”

Levin added that the Likud sought such an agreement when Netanyahu had the mandate to build a coalition, and they will do the same now.

The minister said he plans to ask Blue and White if they accept the president’s plan, and whether they want to negotiate seriously or if they plan to form a minority government leaning on the Joint List’s outside support.

“There are many concerned citizens to day who want a sharp and clear answer if Blue and White is heading to a broad unity government…[or] unity between them and the Joint List and not with all of Israel and parties that believe in Israel as a Jewish and democratic state,” he said.

In recent days, several Blue and White MKs have spoken out against the possibility of leading on the anti-Zionist Joint List to form a government. Most of the faction, including Gantz, quietly oppose a minority coalition, but members of the Yesh Atid party within Blue and White, especially MK Ofer Shelah, have continue to insist that all options are on the table.

A source in the centrist faction told The Jerusalem Post that if a minority government is formed, Telem, the right-wing party with four seats in the Blue and White list, would consider splitting from the faction.

MK Chili Tropper told KAN Bet on Sunday morning that he rules out such a government: “We will establish a unity government with entry for parties that accept Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”

MK Zvi Hauser said on Saturday that Blue and White will only sit in a coalition with “a party that supports the basic, foundational arrangement of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. Those are the relevant parties to a unity government. We plan to work to form a large, Zionist unity government. There is no relevance to a narrow, troublesome government.”

Gantz and the Blue and White team have a busy negotiating schedule for the rest of the week. Blue and White and Yisrael Beytenu negotiators plan to meet later Sunday. On Monday, Gantz is expected to meet with Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman and Labor-Gesher leaders Amir Peretz and Orly Levy-Abecassis, and on Tuesday the Blue and White team plans to meet with negotiators from Labor-Gesher and Democratic Union, and Gantz will meet with Democratic Union chairman Nitzan Horowitz.