Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is expected to end his 12-year reign once a new government is sworn in on Sunday, offered to step down from his role and let Defense Minister and Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz take up role of prime minister in exchange for breaking up the expected unity government, N12 reported on Friday evening.
Gantz is set to lose his role of alternate prime minister to incoming foreign minister and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid, though he will retain the role of defense minister, since his party is expected to enter the coalition.
According to the report, Gantz received offers from several sources close to Netanyahu – the last of which came a little after midnight on Thursday – with Netanyahu’s team telling Gantz “he’s ready to resign this morning.”
Gantz’s team rejected the offers outright, N12 claimed, despite the fact that they would have potentially allowed him to serve 3 years as prime minister, while Netanyahu would serve as an MK.
In his attempts to thwart the formation of the Bennett-Lapid government, Netanyahu has also offered prime ministerial rotation agreements to Gantz, Bennett, New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar, Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin (Likud) and Shas leader Arye Deri. All offers were rejected.
Gantz stepped into the role of alternate prime minister after the March 2020 election, when he and Netanyahu’s Likud Party decided to join together to form a unity government, causing Lapid’s Yesh Atid Party to break their political alliance with Blue and White.