Gantz not ruling out joining Netanyahu coalition

“I do not rule out anyone.” Asked what he would do if Netanyahu was indicted, Gantz did not respond.

By GIL HOFFMAN
Updated: JANUARY 25, 2019 01:38
Collage of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz. (photo credit: GALI TIBBON/POOL VIA REUTERS & MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Collage of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz.
(photo credit: GALI TIBBON/POOL VIA REUTERS & MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz revealed for the first time in a closed-door meeting of his campaign that he would be willing to join a government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a KAN News report.
The meeting was intended to prepare for a rally of his Israel Resilience Party next Tuesday, where he will deliver his first political address since entering politics on December 27. Gantz said at the meeting that he hoped a thousand people would attend the event.
When asked at the meeting about joining a Netanyahu government, he reportedly said, “I do not rule out anyone.” Asked what he would do if the prime minister was indicted, Gantz did not respond.
“I could have stayed at home, but I care for the next generation of the State of Israel,” he told activists.
To improve his chances of building his party’s infrastructure, Gantz has negotiated a deal with Histadrut Labor Federation chief Avi Nissenkorn, Channel 13 reported. According to the report, Nissenkorn would be appointed a minister for Israel Resilience if it is part of a coalition.
Building an infrastructure for his party could give Gantz leverage against Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, who has said that Gantz should let him lead a joint centrist list, because of Yesh Atid’s wide network of activists across the country.
Gantz also received a boost from a KAN News poll that found that if elections were held now, Israel Resilience would receive 15 seats compared to Yesh Atid’s 11. Netanyahu’s Likud received 31 mandates in the poll of 945 respondents who represent a statistical sample of the adult Israeli population.
Asked who should lead a centrist bloc, 32% said Gantz, 21% answered Lapid and 47% said they did not know or had no opinion. Neither MK Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua, nor former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon’s Telem parties crossed the 3.25% electoral threshold in the poll.
In his weekly question and answer session on Facebook on Thursday, Ya’alon said he hoped there would be a merger of centrist parties “in upcoming days.” But he also indicated that he had other options in a meeting with religious Zionist reporters on Thursday, when he said that he could instead unite with parties on the Right.
Ya’alon said he could instead merge either with Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked’s New Right Party, with religious Zionists or with MKs who could leave the Likud.
Gesher leader Orly Levy-Abecassis, who has hinted recently that her party will run on its own, toured Sderot on Wednesday and held a rally in the city that has been targeted by rocket attacks.