In the late evening hours of April 13, minutes before the expiration of the midnight deadline for Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz to form a new government, President Reuven Rivlin’s office announced that he had granted Gantz’s request, endorsed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for a 48-hour extension.
However, even if Gantz and Netanyahu form their power-sharing government by midnight on April 15, Gantz’s decision to join forces with Netanyahu and the nerve-wracking negotiations Netanyahu put him through in recent weeks have dealt the Israeli left a crushing blow. Gantz’s move, which resulted in the dismantling of his original Blue and White party, has left voters of the center-left disappointed and frustrated, some angry that their votes were “stolen” and handed to the Netanyahu bloc, and all realizing that the hope Gantz offered when he formed his center-left alternative to Netanyahu is dead.