Gantz reiterates willingness to join government with Netanyahu if it excludes far right, Arab parties

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz reiterates his willingness to serve in a government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I do not like Netanyahu and am not Netanyahu’s friend,” Gantz tells the Kan public broadcaster. “I am a soldier of the State of Israel; if I am willing to die for the country, can I not sit [in a coalition] with Netanyahu?”

Gantz, who has been struggling in the polls, breaks with most other opposition leaders who say they will refuse to join a coalition with Netanyahu.

But Gantz, who has joined Netanyahu several times before, says it is the only way to keep the far right out of government and not have the government depend on the support of Arab parties for a majority.

“I am not willing to abandon the country to extremists or rely on the Arab parties,” he says.