A bargaining chip for dealing with the Likud. That’s how Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz described the option of forming a minority government with the support of the Arab Joint List after the September 2019 election. For the past few days, however, he has pushed ahead with the same idea and fully intends to implement it.
The one person behind the scenes who has given him the confidence he needs to push ahead with this is Yisrael Beitenu party chairman, Avigdor Liberman. Liberman has shifted gears in his plan to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from politics once and for all. On March 5, it became obvious that he was willing to walk back the promise most identified with him that he would not cooperate with the Joint List. In the past, he even charged its members with aiding and abetting terrorism and told them to go to “that parliament in Ramallah.” Now, however, when forced to choose between his promise to never sit in a government with Netanyahu and his total rejection of the Joint List, Liberman chose to break the latter promise.
It was the kind of turning point in the plot, which restored hope to the Blue and White party after failing to win at the ballot box March 2, after yet another election. The Likud and the right-wing Orthodox bloc actually got stronger, and the Blue and White party and its leaders slipped into despair. But then Liberman showed them that all was not lost, and that when dealing with Netanyahu, they had no choice but to break out their somewhat more unconventional weapons. Besides, Liberman already promised that there wouldn’t be a fourth round of elections.
His calculations were simple: There is a common interest among the anti-Netanyahu bloc — Blue and White, Labor-Meretz-Gesher, Liberman and the Arab Joint List — to get rid of Netanyahu immediately, and this bloc holds 62 seats, compared to Netanyahu’s own bloc of 58 seats. As far as Liberman is concerned, it is all one move, and seeing it through would mean that the right-wing, ultra-Orthodox bloc of Netanyahu would be history. It will then be possible to form a stable unity government without Netanyahu.
AL-MONITOR All-Access gives you unlimited access to all our journalism, the full Daily Briefing, exclusive interviews, premium newsletters, and live events — for less than $2/week.
