Benny Gantz has formulated a plan to become prime minister after next week’s election if his Blue and White wins four seats more than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rival Likud, according to a report.
Gantz has been presenting a plan in closed party meetings that would see the party quickly contact several key parties that could potentially join a coalition headed by either himself or Netanyahu, the Haaretz website reports citing sources in Blue and White.
He would propose that they join his government for a full four-year term rather than joining Netanyahu’s government, which he alleges will fall after eight months when the premier is indicted in corruption cases following a hearing process.
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri in Jerusalem on December 27, 2015. (Flash90)
The parties are Moshe Kahlon’s center-right Kulanu and Moshe Feiglin’s quasi libertarian Zehut — both of whom have left the door open to supporting either Netanyahu or Gantz — and ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism — despite them having vowed not to join a Gantz-led government.
The sources say that while Gantz doesn’t expect all of them to recommend him as prime minister, he hopes that would prevent them from recommending Netanyahu, leading President Reuven Rivlin to task him first with the challenge of assembling a coalition.
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