Israel Resilience party chief Benny Gantz says during his speech tonight that he will call fellow centrist leader Yair Lapid after his press conference and propose an immediate meeting in order to join forces with the Yesh Atid party.
Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid (L) and Israel Resilience party chief Benny Gantz. (Yossi Zeliger/Flash90, Hadas Parush/Flash90)
Polls have shown that a merged party would become the biggest Knesset faction and have a better chance to challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, but negotiations between the parties are reportedly stalled over disagreements regarding the party leadership and the makeup of the unified election slate.
“You can’t weaken the opportunity for a historic change due to a debate over job opportunities,” Gantz says.
“Let’s rise above [the differences], unite and win.”
Lapid responds by saying in a statement that “As I said yesterday on stage, we will leave no stone unturned, we will do everything to ensure we don’t miss an historic opportunity to replace the government.”
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From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
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