After a planned meeting between Blue and White leader Benny Gantz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was canceled, sources in Blue and White informed Israel Hayom that the cancellation had been strategic and designed to weaken Netanyahu.
One senior official in Blue and White said, "Netanyahu won't toy with us. Benny [Gantz] will be prime minister, and Netanyahu will climb down and resign. His time is over."
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After the meeting was canceled, the Likud issued a statement saying it was "amazed at the decision by Blue and White to blow up the negotiations and cancel the meetings …. Blue and White decided to stop the negotiations for unity and hold an election, all because [No. 2 on the list] Yair Lapid is unwilling to agree to a rotating prime ministership between Netanyahu and Gantz – only one between himself and Gantz."
"Prime Minister Netanyahu is again calling on Benny Gantz to demonstrate responsibility, avoid an election, and meet with him as planned," the Likud statement concluded.
Another senior official in Blue and White said that "The Likud's 'surprised' response, as if we were blowing up negotiations, is more spin from Netanyahu."
When the second official was asked whether or not negotiations on a possible unity government had been "blown up" by the cancellation of the meeting, he replied, "We will never sit in a government with Netanyahu. That's what we promised our voters, and a meeting with Netanyahu to be polite is unnecessary. Netanyahu can sit in jail, not with us."
Likud officials are claiming that Gantz himself, speaking to Netanyahu before Rosh Hashanah, suggested that negotiating teams from the two parties meet before the party leaders sat down. As reported last week, Blue and White is happy that Netanyahu was the first one tapped to form the next government. Senior officials in Blue and White said that the list would have a better chance of forming a government if it was the second in line.
Blue and White also reportedly believes that it will have a better chance of forming a government due to increased pressure from the other parties to avoid a third election.
Blue and White issued a statement regarding the canceled meeting, which said that "Unfortunately, the Likud is insisting that Netanyahu serve first in a rotation. In that framework, the Likud is insisting on the 'bloc of 55' and bandying about slogans whose only purpose is to score points ahead of a third election that Netanyahu is dragging Israel into. Israel needs a broad, stable, liberal unity government under Benny Gantz. That is the only goal we will pursue."
