Top Blue & White MKs oppose Arab-backed government

Sources say Yoaz Hendel and Zvi Hauser are trying to thwart Gantz's attempts to form a center-left coalition government, pushing instead for a unity government with Netanyahu's Likud; Joint List members blast Blue & White for negotiation in secret
Moran Azulay, Yuval Karni, Tova Tzimuki|
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Two Blue & White MKs have apparently voiced their opposition to a possibility of forming a minority center-left government backed by the Joint List alliance of Israel's Arab parties.
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  • Blue & White and its center-left bloc won 55 Knesset seats in the March 2 election, coming second to Likud's rightist-religious bloc. The latter bloc only has 58 Knesset seats, and is three short of a majority in the 120-seat Knesset that it needs to form a government.
    Yoaz Hendel and Zvi Hauser are both members of Moshe Ya'alon's Telem's party that makes up Blue & White along with Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid and Benny Gantz's The Israel Resilience Party. Ya'alon met with the two MKs on Sunday in an attempt to persuade them to back the minority government but apparently to no avail.
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    צבי האוזר
    צבי האוזר
    MK Zvi Hauser
    (Photo: Idan Arbel )
    According to reports, the conversation turned heated and yelling could be heard from the other side of the door. A Blue & White source said that Hauser and Hendel were “serving Netanyahu and thwarting a Gantz[-led] government.”
    Sources in the Blue & White said the party has a two-step plan in an effort to avoid the fourth elections, which consists of an initial phase of forming a minority coalition with Labor-Gesher-Meretz and Yisrael Beytenu, with outside support by Joint List and a second phase that assumes once a minority government is formed, members of various right-wing parties would be willing to join the coalition.
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    Blue & White MK Yoaz Hendel
    Blue & White MK Yoaz Hendel
    Blue & White MK Yoaz Hendel
    (Photo: Avi Moalem )
    On Sunday evening, a group of teenagers from a pre-military academy protested outside Hendel’s home, calling on him to resist internal pressure to form a Joint List-backed government.
    The protesters were apparently from Mechinat Lachish, a coeducational, pluralistic program for post-high school Israelis, run by the husband of Sarah Beck from the right-wing Yamina party.
    Footage from the demonstration shows Hendel going outside to greet the protesters, serving them tea and urging them to pressure other lawmakers to push for a Blue & White-Likud unity government.
    “Unity is an existential need,” Hendel tweeted in response to a post about the protests.
    Similar protests are reportedly planned outside the homes of Hauser himself, a fellow Blue & White MK Hili Tropper and Gesher MK Orly Levi. The protests are set to be held under the banner: "Don’t give the keys to the state to terrorist supporters."
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    כחול לבן בני גנץ הרשימה המשותפת איימן עודה אחמד טיבי פגישה
    כחול לבן בני גנץ הרשימה המשותפת איימן עודה אחמד טיבי פגישה
    Benny Gantz meeting with Aymen Odeh and Ahmad Tibi after the April 2019 elections
    (Photo: Ofek Avshalom )
    Nevertheless, Gantz apparently ordered his coalition negotiators to prepare for talks with members of the Joint List in an effort to form a minority government.
    The Joint List members, on the other hand, are reportedly fuming at Gantz over the centrist party’s efforts to conceal the negotiations with the predominantly Arab faction. "Either we enter negotiations with Gantz through the front door or we don’t enter at all,” said one Joint List MK.
    “They must talk to us in the same manner in which they talk to other parties. There will not be deals inked in dark rooms,” the official added, saying the party will not be “a punching bag” for Blue & White MKs when it's politically beneficial for them.
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    לקראת הפגישה בין גנץ לליברמן
    לקראת הפגישה בין גנץ לליברמן
    Benny Gantz meeting with Avigdor Liberman
    (Photo: Ofek Avshalom )
    In the meantime, Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party is expected to recommend to President Reuven Rivlin that Gantz be tasked with forming the government, after the former IDF chief accepted Liberman's conditions for joining a center-left coalition.
    With Liberman’s backing, Gantz could receive more recommendations than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, complicating Rivlin’s choice of whom to task with forming a government.
    Liberman and Gantz are scheduled to meet in the Kfar Maccabiah Hotel in Ramat Gan on Monday to further discuss coordination between their parties.
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    7.
    BW slogan should have been Gantz first not Israel first
    On March 27 202 ( 3 days before the election ) Tibi announced that Joint List will not join any minority government if needed if he attacks Gaza. Here is the party of ex chiefs of staff and they say they are going to be provide security but if they form a minority government they will wither risk the minority government collapsing potentially forcing an election or the safety Gazans residents will take priority over the protection of Israelis. Gantz also amongst other things promised to follow through with the Trump Plan which is a red line for Joint List so I think we can rule out this being a PM that will advance Israel's political interests unless it suits his Arab partners. Before the election Gantz said overt and over no coalition with the Arab parties and now he is openly saying he will form a minority government with them. What happened to the honest man of principles we were led to believe he was considering Gantz seems to have gone back on all his promises in his desperation to be PM. The people who voted for Gantz have been betrayed by this man.
    zionist forever| 03.09.20
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    6.
    hatred of netanyahu
    leiberman hates bibi. as defense minister, lieberman was nothing special. perhaps bibi dominated security meetings which is shameful because bibi shakes in his boots at the thought of combat and risky operations. leiberman who cannot be trusted is a vendetta guy. i no longer listen to his utterancs. ganz along with bibi and yaalon all were lousy in the gaza war. only bennett shone and was correct.yaalon was dumped which is the root of his hatred of bibi. likud some time ago should have booted bibi out. nonetheless, to replace him with oslo2 and idiotic thinking gantz is dangerous for Israel. gantz has little idea of what he is doing. is it any wonder that some advisers reportedly disparaged him in private. he is not fit to lead Israel even if bibi is hated by all. put up a worthy alternative, not some ridiculous joke.
    jake| 03.09.20
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    5.
    B_talkback_titleW is a power crazed, brain dead suicide left party
    Blue and White is clearly a power crazed, brain dead suicide left party which would make a deal with Satan to govern. It's deal with the pro-terrorist Joint List IS a deal with Satan. Blue and White will soon implode. We need to make sure it doesn't gravely harm Israel before it implodes. Israel's current political situation illustrates the immense danger of the growing alliance between treacherous Jewish leftists and anti-Israel Arabs. This has got to be dealt with and fast!
    Chaim| 03.09.20
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