Netanyahu: I don’t want elections, but Gantz refused to compromise

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is heading to elections, blaming Benny Gantz for the fourth national vote in two years.

“We worked very hard to avoid elections, unnecessary elections. We reached agreements with Blue and White. I thought they were promising, they were good agreements that could have averted these elections. Unfortunately, because of internal pressure inside the party, Benny Gantz decided to renege on [the agreement] and this is dragging the country to unnecessary elections at the height of the coronavirus crisis.”

He cites Gantz’s insistence that Avi Nissenkorn remain justice minister as a factor that led to the breakdown of talks.

“We cannot let the left trample our democracy,” he says, speaking alongside Jared Kushner at a press conference.

“It really saddens me. Because instead of enabling a stable government that works for its citizens, and really works in harmony, they are insisting on upholding a ‘government within a government,'” he says.

“We don’t want elections. That’s why we were willing to vote in the Knesset to avoid it. But if elections are imposed upon us, we will win,” he says, underlining Israel’s vaccine campaign and the four normalization agreements.