Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly considering following a legal path that would allow for the cancellation of the Sept. election in favor of reinstating the 21st Knesset and the formation of a unity government with the Blue and White party.
Israel Hayom has learned that Likud officials have been exploring the issue but said it would require Blue and White – a union of the Israel Resilience, Yesh Atid, and Telem parties – to sideline Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid and name Israel Resilience Party head Benny Gantz as the faction's sole leader.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein said Tuesday that he had discovered a legal framework by which the decision to disband the 21st Knesset, which passed a month after the Knesset was sworn in over Netanyahu's inability to form a coalition, could be reversed.
The framework would involve the Knesset Presidium canceling the summer recess, passing a bill to cancel the parliament's dispersal with the support of 80 MKs, and forming a wide coalition, Edelstein told Army Radio.
"The public doesn't want another election and the Knesset's job is to represent the public," Edelstein said. "Holding elections, when it [the Knesset's dissolution] could be reversed, is going against the public's wish."
He noted that he will not convene the Knesset Presidium until he is assured the highly unusual attempt to reinstate parliament after it has been dissolved has as wide a consensus as possible among lawmakers.
"I'm not doing this so we can form a narrow, 61-MK government," he stressed.
Gantz denied that any negotiations with his party were taking place, tweeting, "This is another media spin. Netanyahu is afraid of the public's verdict. Netanyahu is lying – there are no negotiations with Blue and White."
