PM says Gantz can’t be his defense minister, after Likud colleagues say he could

Amid an aggressive campaign from his party in recent days aimed at portraying Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz as unstable, Likud minister Yuval Steinitz said Saturday that the former IDF chief could still be considered for the position of defense minister in a future government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who subsequently rebuffed the notion outright.

“I think the Likud will win the elections. It is possible that Benny Gantz — and in my opinion, this was also his primary goal — will come and ask to be the defense minister in the Netanyahu government. We will consider all options,” Yuval Steinitz said during an on-stage interview in a Shabbat cultural event in Petah Tikva.

Asked to comment on his colleague’s remarks, fellow Likud minister Gilad Erdan later told Channel 13 news that any party willing to accept “the basic principles of a right-wing government” will be welcome.

“Benny Gantz is not disqualified from serving as defense minister,” the public security minister added, while clarifying that the Blue and White chief was not fit to serve as prime minister.

However, Netanyahu released a statement of his own, putting to bed such a scenario, on Saturday evening.

Claiming that Gantz had been weak on security and settlements, the prime minister said he “will not be defense minister in my government.”

In response, Gantz said “Netanyahu won’t be finance minister in my government. He’ll lose the elections and go and face his three indictments” — a reference to three corruption probes in which the prime minister is facing criminal charges, pending a hearing.

He added that Likud would be a welcome partner in any government he leads, but Netanyahu and his politics of “hatred… will be shunned from public life.”

The remarks from the top Likud officials came amid a campaign by Netanyahu’s party to portray Gantz as mentally unstable.

Campaign ads from the party that aired online over the past week claimed that “Benny Gantz has lost it.”

Likud also aired an edited clip from a recent interview in which Gantz stuttered several times and another clip that repeatedly zooms in on his eyes with an accompanying horror movie soundtrack with the accompanying caption: “Completely stable.”

The campaign ad drew condemnation from Gantz’s party as well as from Israel’s disability commissioner, who took issue with its portrayal of the aspiring prime minister as mentally ill.

Gantz, who is Netanyahu’s main challenger in the upcoming elections, has been losing ground in recent days after reports that his cellphone was hacked by the Iranians. Likud has tried to use the hack to show he is unfit to lead the country. Gantz has charged that the leak of the breach to the media was politically motivated.

Likud first began implying Gantz was not sound after he was heard in a recorded conversation making accusations about Netanyahu.

“If (Netanyahu) had a way that I would be harmed, that they would kill me, he would do it,” Gantz said in one recording, adding that the upcoming elections had made Netanyahu desperate.

Recent polls have showed Likud gaining ground on Gantz, whose Blue and White had nosed ahead of Likud earlier in the campaign.

A Channel 13 poll published Thursday showed Likud and Blue and White both winning 30 seats in the upcoming elections on April 9, with Netanyahu better placed to form a coalition.