Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz says he'll form a government without Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Arab parties if he wins the March 2 election. Gantz’s party is currently leading in polls but has no clear path to a parliamentary majority.
Benny Gantz, Blue and White party leader, speaks during an election campaign event of his Blue and White party in Haifa , Israel, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020.
Gantz’s Blue and White party is currently polling ahead of Netanyahu’s Likud, although neither appears to have a clear path to a parliamentary majority required to form a coalition government. Gantz, a former military chief, has been campaigning furiously in pursuit of a knockout punch as the election grows nearer. He appears to have grown closer to Lieberman, whose nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party has bolted from Netanyahu’s right-wing camp and sparked the unprecedented stalemate in Israeli politics that led to the multiple repeat elections.
Still, the numbers don’t seem to add up without at least the tacit support of the Arab parties who are anathema to Lieberman’s hard-line brand of politics. Netanyahu has based his campaign on linking Gantz to the Joint List, an umbrella group of mostly Arab parties who represent the country’s 20% minority, saying he has no option of forming a government without them. Gantz denied he will invite them into his government, saying there is too wide an ideological gap between them.
Israel’s attorney general charged Netanyahu in November on three counts of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Under Israeli law, public officials are required to resign if charged with a crime. But that law does not apply to the prime minister, who can use his office as a bully pulpit against prosecutors.
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