Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s public overtures to Blue and White leader Benny Gantz to form a unity government are a trick intended to prevent Gantz from receiving the mandate to form the government from President Reuven Rivlin, Blue and White leaders said on Sunday. Rivlin is holding consultations with the eight parties that crossed the electoral threshold starting on Sunday. He has until Tuesday to give an MK the mandate to form the next government. “Netanyahu, let’s not manipulate public,” Gantz wrote. “One who wants unity does not have his trial postponed at 1am and does not send a framework for an emergency unity government to the press instead of sending a negotiating team to a meeting” Gantz concluded the message by telling Netanyahu: “When you will be serious, we will speak.” Sources in Blue and White said the offers from Netanyahu had been coming through the press and his social media and not through negotiations behind the scenes. They said the first formal offer only came from Likud negotiator Yariv Levin to his Blue and White counterpart Yoram Turbowicz immediately before Levin entered the President’s Residence. The Likud bashed Blue and White for seeking a minority government that it said would be “dependent on Balad, Heba Yazbak and terror supporters, instead of joining a national emergency government that could save lives.” The Likud complained that Gantz has been refusing to meet with Netanyahu since Thursday. According to the proposal that Netanyahu said he sent Gantz, the government would last six months and the portfolios would be distributed equally. He would not be able to fire Blue and White ministers and Blue and White would not be able to vote no-confidence in the government. Netanyahu said he was also ready to discuss a unity government with a rotation in the Prime Minister’s Office. But he said that in such a government, he would have to be prime minister the first two years while Gantz served as vice prime minister. After the September election, the rotation considered had Netanyahu only serving as prime minister for five or six months. Speculation had been that because the Likud did better in the March election, Netanyahu could ask to stay in office for a year. Blue and White sources said joining a government led by Netanyahu for two years was a non-starter. Overnight, there were fights inside Blue and White, with Gantz and MK Gabi Ashkenazi reportedly willing to enter a Netanyahu-led government and MKs Yair Lapid and Moshe Ya’alon strongly against it. Netanyahu spoke to Ashkenazi, hoping to use him to sell his proposals to his fellow Blue and White leaders. But Ashkenazi released a statement on Sunday that “Netanyahu is not aiming for unity and true partnership and not for an emergency government.” He said the leadership of Blue and White is unified and its only consideration would be the good of Israeli citizens. Netanyahu issued another statement on Sunday morning calling upon Gantz to join the government, due to the coronavirus pandemic. “To face the national and international emergency situation, we must join forces and form a strong and stable government that can pass a budget and make difficult decisions,” Netanyahu wrote. Netanyahu also called on Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman and Labor chairman Amir Peretz to join the government. Liberman mocked the proposal on social media, saying “I know Netanyahu, and there is nothing behind his calls for unity except for playing the blame game.”
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