The relative political quiet typical of the Sukkot holiday was disrupted on Wednesday by a report in Israel Hayom that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was hesitant to return the mandate to form a government to the president out of concern that Blue and White leader Benny Gantz would form a minority government with the Arab parties that would eventually break up, leading to a third election.
A senior Likud minister and close associate of Netanyahu voiced harsh criticism of Gantz on Wednesday, claiming that Gantz still failed to understand that without partnering with the Likud and the smaller right-wing parties, he would not be able to form a government. According to the minister, there was little chance that Gantz would try to form a minority government that rested on support from the Arab parties, as he and Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman would pay a heavy political price for doing so.
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"If there is a need, we'll even hold a fourth election," the minister told Israel Hayom.
"Blue and White needs to understand that it can't form a government without the Likud or the parties that go with it. That will always be the case, no matter how many rounds of an election are held. The Likud won't leave Netanyahu, and Netanyahu won't leave the parties in the right-wing bloc and they won't leave him," the minister explained.
The Likud minister said that if Gantz had accepted the proposal made to him after the April 9 election, "he could have been prime minister a few months from now. He was offering a seat in a rotation [for prime minister] within a year … which would have made him prime minister in March or April [2020] – the date when, as of now, we will be holding a third election if Blue and White doesn't wake up to the situation."
Meanwhile, most of the leaders of the small right-wing parties, with the exception of the New Right, signed a pledge on Wednesday that read, "If, heaven forbid, a minority government supported by the Joint Arab List or part of it is sworn in, we will not join that government at any stage. We will vote against it in every vote and work to bring it down in every way possible."
The right-wing leaders also made a commitment to join "only a government under Netanyahu that will include the undersigned, whether in the framework of a right-wing government or in the framework of a unity government with a rotation."
Former Education Minister Naftali Bennett and former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked refused to sign the pledge because they saw it as unnecessary.
Although MK David Bitan (Likud) said that he thought Netanyahu should return the mandate to President Reuven Rivlin, his fellow Likud MK Miki Zohar was staunchly opposed to the idea.
"The fact that Lieberman still hasn't declared that he will not allow the establishment of a minority government supported by the Joint Arab List is very disturbing," Zohar told Israel Hayom.
"It's mostly dangerous for Israel's security. Any government that is established and rests on support from the Arabs will be exposed to extortion on security issues that benefits our enemies. I call on the prime minister not to return the mandate to the president until Lieberman makes it clear he will not allow such a government to be formed," Zohar said.
However, Leiberman was still refusing on Wednesday to state that he would not support the formation of a minority government. In a Facebook post, he wrote, "We have no intention of addressing this spin from the Likud or any other spins. If they want to sit down with us for serious coalition negotiations, first they need to break up the haredi-messianic bloc and then we can discuss everything."
The smaller right-wing parties also aimed barbs at both Lieberman and Blue and White following the Israel Hayom report.
New Right chairman Naftali Bennett wrote, "the dark trick of establishing a minority government that is based on votes from the anti-Zionist Joint Arab List and Lieberman's refusal [to prevent it] is an immoral idea that will taint those who perpetrate it. It will also fail, because no party will join a government that is established that way, so it won't be in power for more than a few weeks."
Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich, however, did not reject the idea of a minority government and claimed that even if one were formed, it would be short-lived.
"It's actually not a bad idea," Smotrich wrote.
"A government like that wouldn't last very long, and then the Right would see a huge win in an election. A move like that would expose Lieberman's true colors and label him as far on the Left. This could definitely be the best solution for the crisis we're engulfed in," Smotrich argued.
