Former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not relinquished hope of forming a government in the current Knesset with Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, even though he criticized him for the first time since the current coalition’s formation, sources close to Netanyahu said on Tuesday.
Netanyahu raised speculation that he was no longer considering Gantz to be a partner when he said in a Facebook Live post on Monday night that the defense minister was “displaying weakness in every direction,” which led to this week’s terrorist attacks in Jerusalem. Previously, Netanyahu reserved his criticism for Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.
But a Netanyahu associate said it wasn’t true. “Anyone who can help us return to power will be welcomed, including Gantz, so [the speculation] is incorrect.”
Sources close to Gantz said they did not believe Netanyahu would stop his efforts to woo Blue and White to a coalition he could form.
“Bibi said,” Gantz said when asked about Netanyahu’s criticism at a Blue and White rally on Monday night. “So he said. It’s not important to me what he said.”
Gantz added a statement about Netanyahu’s irrelevance in Yiddish.
The Likud floated a trial balloon last month that Gantz could serve as prime minister for four years in a government with the Likud, in which Netanyahu would be his deputy. Netanyahu and Gantz were friendly to each other before the cameras this week at a family wedding of United Torah Judaism MK Yaakov Asher.
In a sign indicating the coalition’s staying power, New Hope Minister Yoaz Hendel, one of the most right-wing figures in the government, told KAN Radio on Tuesday morning that he had no problem sitting in a coalition with Ra’am (United Arab List) MK Walid Taha, but he would never be part of a coalition with Religious Zionist Party MK Itamar Ben-Gvir. Hendel said Ra’am was accepting of Israel as a Jewish State, while Ben-Gvir was a provocateur who harms the country.
Ben-Gvir responded by accusing Hendel of “sticking a knife in the back of IDF soldiers and twisting it.” Ben-Gvir noted that Taha had called murderers of children “freedom fighters” and met with terrorists.
“This proves who Yoaz Hendel is and how bad this government is,” Ben-Gvir said.