Netanyahu Makes New Offer For Unity Government - Gantz Rejects

Netanyahu floats new offer for unity government, Gantz swiftly rejects it

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday extended a new proposal to Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz to join a unity government that includes the premier’s Likud party and his allies on the religious right.

The offer was quickly dismissed by Gantz as disingenuous, with the Blue and White leader saying Netanyahu “is not seeking unity but immunity,” in a reference to the prime minister’s insistence on retaining the premiership — allegedly so as to avoid having to step down if he is indicted in the three criminal cases against him.

“We will wait to receive the mandate from the president and start serious negotiations to form a liberal unity government that will usher in change and bring back hope for Israel’s citizens,” Gantz said.

The suggestion, made a week before the deadline for Netanyahu to form a coalition following September’s election, is based on the president’s proposal for a power-sharing government. It would maintain the status quo on matters of religion and state for a year, while moving forward on a compromise for military conscription for the ultra-Orthodox — an issue that derailed efforts to form a government following April’s national vote.

“This is the only government that can be formed right now,” the prime minister said. “I call on Benny Gantz to show national responsibility and enter into immediate negotiations with me, to form alongside me the government that the State of Israel needs so much.”

Netanyahu did not offer to reconsider his insistence that the government include the ultra-Orthodox and hard-right parties — a major impediment for Blue and White.

Gantz dismissed the proposal as “an offer I couldn’t not refuse.”

He added: “Even now [Netanyahu] is unwilling to engage in direct negotiations and to acknowledge the fact that the majority of Israeli citizens voted for a liberal unity government, without the extremes.”

Senior officials in Blue and White added that Netanyahu’s proposal appeared to be a campaign move ahead of a possible third election.

Likud condemned Blue and White for dismissing the proposal, saying Gantz was “capitulating” to the dictates of Blue and White no. 2 Yair Lapid and Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman. It called Gantz “a serial objector.”