Telem leader Moshe Ya’alon slammed the recent decision by Blue and White leader to agree, in principle, to enter an emergency unity government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if an agreement could be reached between them.Referring to the military idiom of entering under the stretcher carrying an injured man, meaning to give support for a good cause, Ya’alon said that Gantz “didn’t agree to carry the stretcher, he agreed to become one of Netanyahu’s litter carriers.”
The dramatic decision Gantz took, which offered him the position of Knesset Speaker, led to Blue and White breaking up with Yesh Atid leafer Yaair Lapid and Ya’alon refusing to sit in coalition with Netanyahu.
Speaking with Ben Caspit from Maariv, the sister publication of the Jerusalem Post, Ya’alon argued that Netanyahu has had a corrupting influence on the entire country. Alleging that Netanyahu had been able to sway major religious figures in the orthodox Jewish community that his alleged corruption charges are “only about a few cigarettes” and that under his rule, the Likud is “keeping files on every possible political rival (to Netanyahu)," he added that, “there is a file on me as well.”
Ya’alon, who worked under Netanyahu as IDF Chief of Staff as have Gantz and Blue and White MK Gabi Ashkenazi, said that Netanyahu is obsessive about the media and an alleged plot to remove him from office.
“Netanyahu controls most of the media on one hand,” Ya’alon said, “and is attacking her with the other.”
“You yourself (Ben Caspit) was placed in a [Likud] poster about four reporters who were depicted as 'wanted,'” he said, “is this what we want to be? [Like] Turkey?”
Ya’alon slammed Netayahu for constructing a concept according to which anyone who speaks against him is an alleged “Leftist” or even a traitor. “He built this illusion,” Ya’alon said, “he became the father of the nation and now he [pretends as if] he is saving us from the coronavirus.”
Ya’alon asked in irony “is there no replacement for Netnayahu?” In reference to Netanyahu’s skills as a speaker he asked, “is he the only one who can speak English?”
“This country had not been managed for many long years,” he said, “now see how the health system is blowing up in our faces, after we starved this system (for funds).”
“If the Health Ministry doesn’t have a plan for the next decade,” he said, “is it any wonder we are placed last [in the OECD] in the numbers of [hospital] beds per capita, number of nurses per capita, beds in the intensive care units?”
Ya’alon expressed grave doubts about the possibility Gantz will eventually be able to reach a unity government with Netanyahu and serve as prime minister saying Gantz could “hang a framed [agreement] that he will be prime minister in a year and a half on the wall and it won’t happen.”
“Gantz is a man of values and is not corrupt,” he said, “[Gantz] made a mistake.”