Yamina, ultra-Orthodox parties pledge never to join Gantz gov't

Joint vow designed to ward off threat of Blue and White forming a government which Gantz hopes would presage some right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties to join his coalition in the future.

By JEREMY SHARON
Ayelet Shaked and Naftali Bennett, 2019. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Ayelet Shaked and Naftali Bennett, 2019.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Members of Knesset belonging to the right-wing religious and ultra-Orthodox parties have pledged not to join a government led by Blue and White leader MK Benny Gantz, either at the beginning or during the course of his coalition-forming process.
Although he is yet to be tasked by the president, Gantz is currently trying to formulate a minority government comprising his party, Labor-Meretz-Gesher and Yisrael Beytenu, and to possibly seek the support of the Joint List of Arab parties to support it externally without joining the coalition.
The purpose of such a government would be to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the premiership in the hope that once this is achieved, some of the religious-Zionist and ultra-Orthodox parties might join and form a more stable coalition.
Those parties have now declared that they will not join such a government even after Netanyahu would no longer be prime minister.
“We MKs will not join, now nor in the future, a dangerous minority government headed by Benny Gantz, and will work with all our power to topple such a government and to establish a government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu which will protect Israel’s security and the Jewish and democratic character of the state,” reads the text of a letter jointly signed individually by the Yamina and Shas MKs.
United Torah Judaism’s MKs did not individually sign the letter, but party leaders MKs Yaakov Litzman and Moshe Gafni issued a statement to the press in the name of UTJ using the same wording as the letter signed by Yamina and Shas.
The parties also declared their opposition to any legislation passed by the Blue and White-led bloc that would prohibit an MK from forming a government while on trial.
Blue and White, as well as the Joint List, is preparing such legislation which would prevent Netanyahu from forming and heading a government since he is set to go on trial next week on corruption charges, barring the postponement he has requested.