Lapid and Gantz put kibosh on joining Netanyahu government for Saudi deal

Opposition party leaders say a potential normalization deal with Saudi Arabia would not be enough to bring them into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, the Walla news site reports.

However, they could support such a deal from outside the government, say both Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid and National Unity leader Benny Gantz.

“We won’t enter a Netanyahu government. If there’s a deal with Saudi Arabia that represents Israel’s security interests, we’ll back it from the outside,” a source close to Lapid is quoted saying.

According to reporting by ToI and The New York Times, any deal with the Saudis is expected to require significant Israeli concessions on the Palestinian front, moves unlikely to be backed by far-right elements in the Netanyahu government.

Opposition leaders have stated that they will not serve in a coalition with Netanyahu due to his ongoing corruption trial, “but questions have come up in discussions with Americans about whether the leaders might relent if it meant establishing diplomatic relations with the Saudis,” The New York Times reported Sunday.

However, according to Walla, opposition members are expected to approach any deal with Saudi Arabia with a jaundiced eye, fearing it could include concessions that will erode Israel’s regional military advantage, such as okaying a Saudi nuclear program.

Opposition members lodged largely ineffective objections to a normalization deal with the UAE that included an Israeli sign-off on advanced arms sales to Abu Dhabi.