The leaders of all the parties in the right-wing religious bloc on Thursday signed a document pledging to recommend Benjamin Netanyahu as the next prime minister and vowing to enter a coalition only as a single unit, as the premier called on Blue and White chief Benny Gantz to join a “unity government” that includes those parties.
“I suggest we meet as soon as possible, without preconditions, to work together to establish a broad unity government representing all who believe in a Jewish, democratic Israel,” the prime minister urged, having made a similar call in a statement earlier in the day, after Israeli elections Tuesday left the rival blocs headed by Netanyahu and Gantz short of a Knesset majority.
Speaking at a state memorial event marking three years since the death of former president and prime minister Shimon Peres, Netanyahu hinted at a readiness to rotate the premiership, as Peres and Yitzhak Shamir did after deadlocked elections in 1984. “Shimon believed in uniting our people” and with that goal “he and Shamir agreed to cooperate,” Netanyahu recalled.
It wasn’t clear whether Netanyahu’s mention of talks “without preconditions” included the significant condition that Yamina, United Torah Judaism and Shas be included in his proposed unity government.
Blue and White rejected the offer as “spin,” noted that Gantz’s party was ahead of Likud in the non-final election count, and accused Netanyahu of seeking to blame Blue and White as he seeks the eventual recourse of a third round of elections.
The document pledging unified support behind Netanyahu by leaders of Shas, United Torah Judaism and Yamina was signed during a meeting of the right-wing and ultra-Orthodox party heads earlier Thursday morning. It came on the heels of a press conference Wednesday in which Netanyahu announced the 55-strong united front designed to pressure Gantz into dropping his demand for a “secular” unity government with Likud, minus the ultra-Orthodox and religious parties.
While not enough to form a coalition on its own, Netanyahu is hoping that President Reuven Rivlin will treat his 55-seat bloc as a single party and therefore agree to task Netanyahu with forming the next government.
The document was signed by Netanyahu; United Torah Judaism leader Yaakov Litzman; and Yamina MKs Ayelet Shaked, Naftali Bennett, Rafi Peretz and Bezalel Smotrich. Shas leader Aryeh Deri, while not present at the meeting, gave his consent via phone call and would be signing soon, a spokesman for Likud said.
In the document, they promised that their parties “will conduct coalition negotiations jointly and will enter any government only together. No party will hold any separate negotiations and won’t enter any government without all the rest of the parties.”
Additionally, the document says: “Our candidate for prime minister is Benjamin Netanyahu.”
The document was signed by Shaked and Smotrich despite both having expressed reservations about the idea earlier Thursday.
The united front was first announced on Wednesday, when Likud said the party chiefs had decided to set up a joint negotiation team for coalition talks and act as a “single right-wing bloc” moving forward. The all-or-nothing alliance would aim to prevent a different unity coalition, composed of Likud, Blue and White, and Yisrael Beytenu, which Liberman is pushing and that Gantz would seek to head. Liberman has also insisted that such a coalition pursue liberal policies that would preclude the inclusion of the ultra-Orthodox parties.
Blue and White dismissed the offer, with senior sources within the party telling Hebrew-language media that it was political spin by Netanyahu: “He has decided to go to third elections and is trying to foist the blame onto us. If he stepped aside, there would be a unity government within a day.
“Blue and and White is the biggest party, and Benny Gantz should form a unity government and head it,” the sources added.
Netanyahu and Gantz then met later Thursday morning at the memorial event for Peres. At President Rivlin’s urging, the two posed together for photos and shook hands.
At the event, Rivlin, who is now tasked with deciding who will get the first shot at forming a government, said he would do everything in his power to prevent another round of elections.
“The responsibility for that lies with the publicly elected officials, and specifically on those who head the two biggest parties,” he added.
Rivlin welcomed Netanyahu’s call for a unity government and said: “When faction representatives come to me, they will have to explain what they intend to do so that we get to see the formation of a government in Israel as soon as possible.”
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