UTJ sticking with Netanyahu as Gantz to get shot at forming government

The ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party reiterates its position that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be tasked with forming a government, after the premier informed President Reuven Rivlin he failed to do so.

Harel Tubi, the director-general of the President’s Residence, is informing Knesset factions that Rivlin intends to tap Blue and White chief Benny Gantz to form a government.

“This stance of ours has not changed,” Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, the head of the UTJ, writes on Health Ministry stationery to Tubi.

“This is in accordance with the position of all right-wing factions which together number 55 representatives who united as a bloc,” adds Litzman.

UTJ is part of a bloc that includes Netanyahu’s Likud, the fellow ultra-Orthodox Shas party and pair of national religious factions that are conducting coalition talks as a united bloc.

Gantz is calling for a “liberal” unity government with Likud, but rules out sitting with Netanyahu’s religious allies, as well as the premier himself in light of his legal woes.

Earlier today, New Right MK Ayelet Shaked said her party was willing to meet with Gantz but would only hold coalition negotiations as part of the right-wing bloc.