Parties unite in calls for Gantz to leave politics
Gantz: “Blue and White is a stable party.”
By GIL HOFFMANBlue and White leader Benny Gantz attends the Knesset's Remembrance Day service, April 26, 2020(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz’s call for all party leaders who want to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from office to start working to run together in the March 23 election backfired on Tuesday.Gantz singled out Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, Israelis Party head Ron Huldai, Telem chairman Moshe Ya’alon, Tnufa head Ofer Shelah, Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman, Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz, possible Labor leadership candidate Itzik Shmuli and Economy Party head Yaron Zelekha.Not only did none of them agree to come, most of them called on Gantz to quit politics completely and take his Blue and White Party with him.“It is good that Gantz admitted his mistake in trusting Netanyahu when he formed a government with him,” Ya’alon told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. “But he needs to go home. He cannot be the one who connects us. He caused the country great harm.”Zelekha mocked Gantz’s request to party leaders to “put their egos in storage,” saying that it is Blue and White that should be put in storage instead. Huldai said he “hopes Gantz understands what he has to do.”Gantz responded by telling Channel 13 that “there is no reason to leave” and that “Blue and White is a stable party.” He apologized to Lapid for saying that he “hates people” and said he would meet with him privately and not talk to him through the press. Earlier, Gantz told KAN Radio that Lapid “has the skills to lead the bloc if that is what the bloc decides.”Former prime minister Ehud Barak supported Gantz’s call, writing on Twitter on Tuesday that chances of replacing Netanyahu would face a serious blow if Center and Left are split into 11 separate parties. He said the public in general and protest groups in particular should tell them to “come down to earth.”Talking points circulated among Blue and White MKs on Tuesday said that if asked whether Lapid could be prime minister, they should say that “anyone could be a better prime minister than Netanyahu.”
