Coalition talks begin Monday with Gantz-Liberman meeting

Gantz and Liberman are expected to decide to seek a minority government along with Labor-Gesher-Meretz that would be supported from outside the coalition by the Joint List.

By GIL HOFFMAN
Blue and White leader Benny Gantz meets with Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Liberman (photo credit: ELAD MALKA)
Blue and White leader Benny Gantz meets with Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Liberman
(photo credit: ELAD MALKA)
A week after last Monday’s election, coalition negotiations will start on Monday afternoon, when Blue and White leader Benny Gantz meets with Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman at Ramat Gan’s Kfar Hamaccabiah Hotel.
The results of the race will only formally be presented to President Reuven Rivlin on Tuesday. Rivlin will then take his time in inviting faction heads to consultations ahead of his decision on granting a mandate to form a government by the March 17 deadline.
Gantz and Liberman are expected to decide to seek a minority government along with Labor-Gesher-Meretz that would be supported from outside the coalition by the Joint List. They will decide together how to handle the Joint List’s demands.
The four leaders of Blue and White met on Sunday and decided that a minority government should be sought temporarily on the way to building a larger coalition. They decided they still could check the possibility of a unity government, but only if Gantz served first as prime minister, a condition Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would never accept.
Gantz told Blue and White negotiators Yoram Tubowicz and Shalom Shlomo to prepare to negotiate with the Joint List.
The chances of a minority government could be harmed by the refusal to support it by Blue and White’s two most right-wing MKs, Zvi Hauser and Yoaz Hendel. They held what Channel 13 reported as a stormy meeting on Sunday with MK Moshe Ya’alon, the head of their Telem Party, which is part of Blue and White.
“Unity is an existential need,” Hendel tweeted on Sunday night following the meeting with Ya’alon and a tense meeting with families of terrorism victims.
There are 62 MKs in Blue and White, Labor-Gesher-Meretz, Yisrael Beytenu and the Joint List. Without Hendel and Hauser, there would be only 60, and it remained unclear on Sunday whether the three MKs of Balad, which is one of the parties in the Joint List, could be counted on.
“There is no chance that we will negotiate without representation of all four parties,” Joint List faction head Ahmad Tibi said Sunday evening after a meeting with his faction in Kafr Kassem.
The Joint List’s demands for supporting a government from outside include NIS 64 billion over 10 years for infrastructure in the Arab sector and veto power over diplomatic and security moves.
The Right is putting pressure on Blue and White to prevent a unity government. MKs in the Likud’s right-wing bloc were asked to sign a petition saying they would not join a Gantz-led government or support a bill that would prevent an indicted MK from forming a governing coalition.
Demonstrators protested outside Hendel’s home in Ness Harim outside Jerusalem on Sunday night. He told the protesters to demand a unity government.