Blue and White chances of joining next Knesset fall after mergers rejected
Benny Gantz is seen as political liability.
By GIL HOFFMANBlue and White leader Benny Gantz announces that he will be supporting opposition leader Yair Lapid's Knesset dispersal bill, Tuesday, December 1st, 2020.(photo credit: ELAD MALKA)
After falling below the electoral threshold for the first time in Friday’s Jerusalem Postpoll, Blue and White’s chances of entering the next Knesset fell even further over the weekend, when parties rejected the possibility of running together with Blue and White head Benny Gantz.There are expected to be mergers of parties on both the Right and the Left ahead of the February 4 deadline to submit lists to the Central Elections Committee. Possible merger options for Blue and White include Yesh Atid, Yamina, former minister Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope Party and Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai’s Israelis Party.But representatives of each shunned the idea on Saturday night, even though Blue and White has a war chest of an estimated NIS 20 million.Sources in Yesh Atid said that Gantz has become a political liability who repels voters without compensating with electoral value. Gantz insulted Lapid in two weekend interviews, making such a merger very unlikely.Yamina faction head Ayelet Shaked told Channel 13 that “uniting with Blue and White is not going to happen,” in part because “they were part of a government that failed.”Yoaz Hendel, who is running with New Hope, said he was not aware of any current process to run together with Blue and White. Sources in Huldai’s party did not rule it out but were not enthusiastic about the idea.A merger with the Israelis Party became less likely over the weekend when its number two, former justice minister, Avi Nissenkorn, clashed with Gantz.In a weekend interview with Yediot Aharonot, Gantz said he told Nissenkorn that he “felt him stabbing me in the back and turning the knife.”Nissenkorn, whose resignation took effect Friday morning, wrote on Facebook afterward that Gantz made “crazy concessions” that would have emptied the justice minister post of authority in an effort to keep the government together. He accused Gantz of being ready to merge with Yamina, which he said was a sign of insurmountable gaps between him and his party leader.Blue and White responded to Nissenkorn by saying that he had “sold out the Justice Ministry to guarantee his own political future” and “there is no limit to his lies.”
Yesh Atid will start a positive campaign this week, devised in part by Washington-based strategist Mark Mellman. The party’s strategy is to become the largest party in its bloc and then welcome mergers under the leadership of party chairman Yair Lapid. Using advanced technology, Yesh Atid intends to reach out to hundreds of thousands of potential voters.Former Yesh Atid MK Ofer Shelah announced on Saturday night that his new party’s name will be “Tnufa,” meaning momentum.Meanwhile, New Hope announced a new candidate; attorney Michal Diamant, the granddaughter of former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir.“Diamant is a woman with a clear worldview, who deeply understands the importance of the unity of the people, as a value and foundation of our national strength,” Sa’ar said. “She will join the team preparing New Hope’s judicial system reforms and focus on promoting the issue of civil rights in the legal process.”Eve Young contributed to this report.
