Netanyahu: Arab-backed minority government an ‘existential threat’ to Israel

Prime Minister Netanyahu takes the stage at his Likud party’s “emergency rally,” railing against what he says is an effort by Blue and White’s Benny Gantz to form a minority government backed by the Joint List of four predominantly Arab parties.

“We’re in a fateful moment” for Israel, Netanyahu says. “The MKs of the Joint List support terror organizations. They call Israeli soldiers murderers.”

Netanyahu claims that during a flareup between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza last week, Gantz held coalition talks “with those same MKs who support terror organizations and want to destroy the country.”

The Likud chief says that while he does not want further elections, a Joint-List backed government would be worse. Such a government would an “existential threat” to Israel, he says.