Gantz denies supporting Netanyahu, rejects ‘narrow’ coalition of opposition parties

Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz denies supporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even as he rejects the establishment of a “narrow” opposition-led coalition.

“Folks, it’s very simple: either there will be a broad, Zionist government here, or there will be a narrow, extremist government. I am no longer willing to accept that,” the former defense minister tells Channel 12’s “Meet the Press” program.

“Where do you hear that I support Netanyahu? Where did you get that from?” he challenges his interviewers, noting that he helped establish the so-called government of change, which he asserts led to the current “extremist government.”

“And what you are suggesting I do is let another one like that rise. Have we lost our minds?” Gantz asks. “You are stuck in ‘Yes Bibi, No Bibi.’ Bibi needs to go home…He is responsible for what happened here, he needs to go home, but that alone is not enough.”

Gantz argues that “we must establish a Zionist unity government” with both “right and left.” And while a Bennett-Lapid government like the government of change “is preferable to the current government,” he argues “it is not a sufficient solution.”

Asked about his former number two Gadi Eisenkot, whose Yashar party is running neck and neck with Netanyahu’s Likud, Gantz replies that “he wants one side to prevail” and is willing to “go with the Arabs” to make it happen while “I want to bring the two sides together.”