Israeli Elections
Sources close to Israel’s President Rivlin say mandate to form government will be passed to Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, Israeli media reports • Three arrested during clashes between pro- and anti-Netanyahu demonstrators outside attorney general’s home.
Benjamin Netanyahu is in his second week of a 28-day period during which he’s been tasked to form a government. If he fails, Blue and White leader Benny Gantz stands ready to get his shot.
The cloud of no leader being able to form a majority coalition could be felt, and talk was centered on the need to form a unity government led by the two largest parties: Likud, and Blue and White.
Blue and White offers Netanyahu a power-sharing deal if he leaves office for the next two years • Gantz to Netanyahu: “I don’t want to see you behind bars. I hope you are innocent, but we need a prime minister.”
Yisrael Beiteinu leader: If there’s no progress by Yom Kippur, “we will enter any effort to form a government in high gear”; Netanyahu: “Yair Lapid is the only reason there is no unity government.”
Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz cancels last-minute meeting with Likud • Likud Party accuses Blue and White of having decided to “go to elections.”
The major party heads are between a rock and a hard place, with no one budging for now.
“After a three-year flood of tendentious, partial media leaks, the time has come for the public to hear everything, including my side,” says Israeli prime minister.
“We won’t be able to form a government unless we do it together,” said the Israeli prime minister, citing security, diplomatic and economic concerns. “The nation needs to be united and prepared.”
The Israeli prime minister, who leads the Likud Party, will have 28 days to form a new government.
And Avigdor Lieberman says Yisrael Beiteinu will never sit with “the ultra-Orthodox, the messianics, the Joint List or the Democratic Union.”
Adjustment comes after “real evidence” of electoral fraud is found in six northern Israeli towns; Division of Knesset seats between left- and right-wing blocs remains unchanged.
