The possibility that the Arab Joint list will play some role in helping Benny Gantz, head of the Blue and White party, create a minority government has all but ended with the latest strikes on the Gaza Strip and Gantz’s public support for the attacks.
Johnny Mansour, a Haifa-based historian and political science lecturer at Beit Berl College in Israel, told Al-Monitor talks between the Joint List and Gantz are over. “It is clear that these talks are over — while the discussion was never about joining the coalition but supporting it from outside with the aim of pushing [Benjamin] Netanyahu out [of coalition talks]. However, Netanyahu superseded this possibility by his attack on Gaza and forced Gantz’s hand by having the former chief of staff support the attacks on Gaza.”