Left recoils at Gantz’s immunity-for-resignation offer to Netanyahu

Centrist political chief Benny Gantz may be considering supporting parliamentary immunity for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (on condition that he resign), but the left is having none of it.

Gantz told a faction meeting earlier today he’d consider supporting a Netanyahu request for immunity — which must be granted to a lawmaker in a Knesset vote — if Netanyahu agreed to leave politics in return.

“I don’t want to see a prime minister in prison any more than you,” Democratic Camp chair Nitzan Horowitz tells Gantz in a statement to the press. “But for that we need a prime minister who isn’t corrupt.”

Horowitz vows: “There isn’t and there won’t be any parliamentary immunity for Netanyahu. In Israel, everyone is equal before the law. If Netanyahu is convicted of the serious offenses of which he is accused, he’ll have to serve his sentence.”

Labor-Gesher chair Amir Peretz sounded a similar tone.

“No one wants to see a prime minister go to prison. But every citizen in Israel must be equal before the law. You can’t buy and sell the position of prime minister,” Peretz says.

“Netanyahu can strike a plea deal right now,” he adds, “instead of continuing to hunker down in [the PM’s residence on Jerusalem’s] Balfour [Street].”

The left’s protestations may be principled, but they’re not decisive. If Blue and White and Likud agree to grant Netanyahu parliamentary immunity, he’ll have 65 votes in favor — a majority in the 120-seat Knesset — and won’t need the 11 combined votes of the two left-wing parties.