Gantz wants – like Netanyahu – to meet with foreign leaders

Gantz asked Yad Vashem to allow him to speak, along with Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin, and was rejected, Channel 13 reported.

By LAHAV HARKOV
BENNY GANTZ (photo credit: REUTERS)
BENNY GANTZ
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Blue and White leader Benny Gantz demanded to be treated equally to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when world leaders visit Israel next month for the World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem.
Gantz asked Yad Vashem to allow him to speak, along with Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin, and was rejected, Channel 13 reported. He also asked Rivlin to invite him to a dinner he is hosting for the leaders and seeks to meet with some of them individually.
Among those attending the ceremony that marks 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz are US Vice President Mike Pence, Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Britain’s Prince Charles.
Blue and White has expressed concern that Netanyahu will take advantage of the media coverage of the events for his election campaign, saying that he has treated official state events like campaign events throughout the last year. The party argued Gantz deserves equal treatment as the prime minister because there is no opposition leader and the MK was the last person with the mandate to form a government, though he, like Netanyahu, failed to do so.
“We know what Netanyahu will do with this ceremony and the time has come for it to stop. Gantz has to get an identical platform to Netanyahu’s and he plans to give a statesmanlike speech that is not political,” the party’s spokesman said.
Few world leaders have visited Israel since the first election this year, in April. Gantz met with US President Donald Trump’s advisers Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt when they visited Israel.