The head of the Joint Arab List Ayman Odeh poured cold water on the possibility that the 15-strong Arab bloc in the new Knesset will join forces with the Left in order to deny Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a new government.
Odeh was specifically lamenting Blue and White leader Benny Gantz's pledge not to form a government or coalition in which the Arab MKs hold the balance of power.
Blue and White, a center-left alliance of parties, came in second in Monday's election and could theoretically form a government, but only if it secures support from the Arab parties, as well as right-wing lawmakers.
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"I will not have anything to do with Blue and White Chairman Benny Gantz," Odeh stressed on Monday.
Neither the Left nor the Right could muster enough votes to get a majority of Knesset seats, but the conventional wisdom is that Netanyahu's Likud party and its allies will somehow manage to swear in a government with their 59 projected seats, either by convincing lawmakers to switch parties, or having them abstain in a confidence vote to swear in the new government.
But there is also the slight possibility that Gantz will become prime minister if he gets the support of the Arab parties and right-wing Yisrael Beytenu, which refuses to sit in a Netanyahu government.
"Gantz can call me if he wants to, and we sided with him after the previous election because he was the least bad option in order to topple Netanyahu, but Blue and White has quite a few racist people and we do not want to be associated with their racist campaign," Odeh said.
