Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz intensified their attacks on Wednesday over whether Israel should hold its first election debate in 20 years.
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Gantz convened a press conference and said that Netanyahu's offer from Tuesday to debate his main challenger was just a PR stunt. "This is spin, I am not going to debate him," Gantz said, adding that Netanyahu is resorting to such tactics in order to distract voters from his upcoming corruption trial. "I don't owe Netanyahu a thing; I am not a Netanyahu employee," he said.
Netanyahu spared no time in hitting back, saying that "Gantz is scared of a debate, and he knows why." He added on Twitter: "Israel needs a strong leader, not a coward; Israel needs a strong right-wing government, not a government that depends on the Joint Arab List. If Gantz is too scared of debating a prime minister, how will he meet the enormous challenges facing Israel? I reiterate my call: Gantz, come and debate me."
Israelis will vote in the March 2 election for the third time in less than a year. The last two elections, in September and in April, ended with no clear winner, as neither Gantz, who heads a center-left alliance and Netanyahu, who heads the right-wing and religious bloc, failed to swear in a government.
The polls indicate that the upcoming election will also result in paralysis, with Israelis on both sides exasperated by the non-stop political drama.
