Gantz on Sa’ar’s proposal to appoint Netanyahu as president: ‘Moral bankruptcy’

Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz on Wednesday slammed a proposal by Likud leadership candidate MK Gideon Sa’ar for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be appointed as president, saying Likud’s lack of principled opposition to a prime minister or head of state serving while under criminal indictment represented a “moral bankruptcy” of the party.

“I hear the voices in Likud [saying] that Netanyahu should be appointed president of the state. That is moral bankruptcy of a glorious movement. Jabotinsky and Begin would be turning in their graves,” Gantz said of Revisionist Zionist leaders Ze’ev Jabotinsky and former Likud leader Menachem Begin.

“These empty values must be replaced. Likud cannot lead the State of Israel at this time,” Gantz stressed, speaking at a faction meeting of his Blue and White party in Ramat Gan.

On Monday, Sa’ar, Netanyahu’s rival in Thursday’s Likud primary, said that, if elected, he’d seek to appoint the prime minister as president.

“If you give me the power on Thursday… and I am chosen as Likud chairman, I will seek for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be elected Israel’s next president in the elections set for a year and a half from now,” Sa’ar told supporters at a gathering.

In that manner, Sa’ar said, Netanyahu “will be able to continue contributing from his international [diplomacy] skills to Israel’s status in the world.”

President Reuven Rivlin’s seven-year term as the Jewish state’s 10th president is set to end in July 2021. Israeli presidents are chosen by Knesset legislators and have historically been politicians.

The Likud leadership race comes after Netanyahu failed in two consecutive attempts to form a government and was charged in a series of corruption cases.

Yet Sa’ar, rather than attacking the premier over his legal troubles or raising a moral question over his continued leadership under indictment, has instead advanced ballot box arguments to support his campaign: If he heads Likud, Sa’ar argues, he would succeed where the premier has failed — in assembling a coalition and boosting the overall strength of right-wing and religious parties.

His proposal to make Netanyahu president could provide the prime minister with a potential get-out-of-jail-free card: the president has full immunity while in office, and could, in theory, pardon himself from all charges.

Netanyahu is charged with fraud and breach of trust in three cases, as well as bribery in one of them. He denies wrongdoing and has accused police and state prosecutors of an “attempted coup” against him.

Speaking on Wednesday, Gantz said, “At this time, Israel needs a strong, stable, broad unity government. A government that will stop dealing with the prime minister’s legal issues and start putting the people of Israel first.”

“As to whether someone facing charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust can accept a mandate to form a government, the answer is clear: no,” he added. “Neither in moral terms nor regarding practical implications. We will leave the legal considerations to the attorney general and the courts and respect their ruling regardless of their decision.”

Next week, the High Court of Justice will hear a petition seeking to block Netanyahu from forming the next government due to the pending indictment against him.

Both Gantz and Netanyahu failed to form a majority coalition following the September elections. The next election, the third in a year, will be held on March 2.