Breaking ranks with Kahlon, Kulanu minister Gallant says PM can stay if indicted

Housing Minister Yoav Gallant broke ranks with his Kulanu party leader Moshe Kahlon on Sunday, saying he does not believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to resign if indicted.

“On this matter, Kahlon and I are divided — in Israel there is a presumption of innocence for everyone, especially the prime minister. There’s no need to rely on speculation,” Gallant told Army Radio. “The prime minister does not need to resign.”

Kahlon has said publicly on a number of occasions that Netanyahu cannot continue to lead the country if he is charged in a series of corruption probes.

Kahlon, a former member of Netanyahu’s Likud party who now heads the center-right Kulanu, has also said he would pull out of the coalition if the premier is indicted.

The finance minister said in March he expected Netanyahu would step down if indicted, or that he would be forced out by other members of the coalition.

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit is set to begin reviewing materials to decide on possible charges against Netanyahu this week, marking the most high-stakes stage yet of a several-year legal entanglement that could upend the country’s political system.

It’s not clear how long it will take Mandeblit to make a decision on whether to charge Netanyahu in any of the three cases. According to Hadashot television, the attorney general’s office aims to reach a decision on whether to press charges in the next few months, and certainly “well before Passover” in mid-April.

Gallant’s comments came as rumors continue to swirl that the housing and construction minister plans to defect to the Likud party. Earlier this month, Gallant reportedly participated in a closed-door gathering of the Likud Central Committee, one of the most senior forums of the party.

The development came with less than a year to go before national elections, and with the coalition holding the slimmest of majorities in the Knesset, following the resignation last month of defense minister Avigdor Liberman and the withdrawal of his Yisrael Beytenu party from the government.

According to the Hadashot report, in recent months Gallant has been meeting with various Likud officials, and the Central Committee event was organized specifically for his benefit.

Publicly, Gallant has denied that he is thinking of switching allegiances. At a November conference in Jerusalem, he was asked if he will join Likud and answered, “If it is dependent on me, I will remain with Kulanu.”

Gallant joined the newly created Kulanu, led by Finance Minister Kahlon, in 2015.

Without the Yisrael Beytenu party, the government has a majority of just 61 Knesset seats to the opposition’s 59, and is liable to topple long before the deadline for the next elections, in November 2019.

Further eroding the coalition’s stability, earlier this month the Israel Police recommended that Netanyahu be indicted for taking bribes in the Bezeq-Walla probe, known as Case 4000, the third case in which law enforcement officials have concluded that he should stand trial.

Netanyahu has denied wrongdoing in all of the cases.

An indictment could hamper Netanyahu’s chances of running again for prime minister as the head of the Likud party.

On Saturday, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the Jewish Home party, told Channel 10 news that he also disagrees with Kahlon and that Netanyahu does not need to resign if indicted.

“It’s not good for Israel if Netanyahu goes to jail, or something like that,” Bennett said. “Whether you love him or not, he’s done a lot for the country. I hope it doesn’t happen. But if there’s change through elections, that’s something else entirely.”