Rivlin to Gantz, PM: Reach deal by deadline tonight
High Court nixes petition to disqualify Netanyahu
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz instructed their teams to immediately resume intensive negotiations on an emergency government after five days with no talks on Sunday after President Reuven Rivlin rejected both their requests for a mandate to build a coalition.
Sources in both parties reported progress in the talks and expressed optimism that an agreement could be reached on Monday. Talks continued by telephone late Sunday night in an effort to finalize an agreement.
Rivlin informed Gantz earlier Sunday that he would not accept his request to extend his mandate to form a government for two more weeks. Rivlin made the decision after Netanyahu told him that a deal with Blue and White was not close.
The Likud and its satellite parties formally asked the president on Sunday to give the mandate to Netanyahu instead of giving Gantz two weeks, as happened after the September election when Gantz got a mandate after Netanyahu. But Rivlin told Netanyahu that if there is no deal by the time Gantz’s mandate ends at 11:59 p.m. on Monday night, he would not receive the mandate afterward.
Instead, there would again be a 21-day period in which any MK could form a government – and if none do, a fourth election would be initiated. Rivlin’s move was seen not as a move leading to an election but as an effort to put pressure on Netanyahu and Gantz to close a deal by a firm deadline. Immediately after Rivlin’s announcement, Blue and White revealed that negotiations had resumed after five days with no talks.
Netanyahu and Gantz spoke on Sunday and instructed their teams to resume the negotiations. Gantz told Netanyahu that he is committed to the agreements that they have reached and is prepared to move forward once work on the legislation accompanying the agreements is complete.
“The attempts by the negotiating teams to arrive at a unity government are still ongoing, their goal being to complete wording of legislation appendices requisite to the finalization of the agreement drafted last week,” Blue and White said. “We have stated clearly that we will not allow the rule of law, nor any of the other fundamental principles that we have outlined, to be damaged.”
The High Court of Justice rejected a petition yet again to disqualify Netanyahu from forming a new government, while yet again leaving the door open to a refiling of the petition at the point at which he would actually be charged with forming a government.
Lawyer Dafna Holz-Lechner refiled the petition earlier on Sunday on behalf of more than 100 hi-tech officials and
concerned citizens to disqualify Netanyahu from forming a government due to his having been indicted on bribery charges.
Her prior petitions and those of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel and other groups were rejected repeatedly by the High Court on the grounds of the petition being theoretical, since Netanyahu might not win the election.
If the Netanyahu-Gantz deal goes through, the issue will be a concrete reality for the first time, and the High Court will finally have to rule.
All indications from the prior High Court rulings are that the justices had hoped the electorate would resolve the issue without their need to rule.
However, given that the High Court passed on disqualifying Netanyahu back when Blue and White had bested Likud, and that Netanyahu is now in the driver’s seat to lead the country for at least the next 18 months, it is likely that the justices will once again find a reason not to intervene.
These could include the Knesset law that only requires forcing out a prime minister upon conviction with all appeals exhausted or the fact that Netanyahu won the most votes in the March 2 election.
In the meantime, the High Court said the Netanyahu-Gantz negotiations have still not reached the point where the issue can be ruled on.
In a blow to Gantz, Gesher MK Orly Levy-Abecassis formally rejoined the center-right bloc on Sunday, when she called upon Rivlin to give Netanyahu the mandate to form a government when Gantz’s mandate ends.
Levy-Abecassis ran in the March 2 election on the Labor-Gesher-Meretz list, which has since broken up into three parties. When Rivlin entrusted Gantz with forming a government after the election, she was the only MK who did not recommend anyone.
With Levy-Abecassis’s endorsement, Netanyahu’s bloc now has 59 MKs. Gantz’s bloc has 61, but the Joint List, Meretz and Yesh Atid-Telem may not recommend him again. Right-wing MKs Yoaz Hendel and Zvi Hauser, who broke off from Blue and White and formed the Derech Eretz faction, still support Gantz holding the balance of power.
Levy-Abecassis wrote on social media that “Gantz’s request to extend his mandate is an admission that he cannot form a government.” She said Gantz’s negotiations on forming a government were “a strange political illusion, accompanied by threats to the prime minister” and scolded Gantz for “selective preaching from those who promised clean politics.”
“The prime minister should be given the mandate, because let’s admit that only he has a chance to form a government,” she wrote.
Netanyahu shared her tweet and responded on Twitter, “Orly, welcome.”
Shortly before the election, Levy-Abecassis said the opposite, saying she would not join a Netanyahu-led government.
“I will not be the life preserver of Benjamin Netanyahu,” she told Channel 12. • no-confidence motions against him.
Publicly, Gantz said he was unimpressed, tweeting that the offer was “spin.”
“One who wants unity does not postpone his own trial... and does not send proposals for emergency unity through the media; rather, he sends a negotiating staff to a meeting,” Gantz wrote. “When you’re serious, we’ll talk.”
Then they started talking behind the scenes. Gantz warmed up to the idea of an emergency government, thinking that putting political differences aside was necessary to help the country pull through this massive public health and economic crisis, even though he still deeply distrusted Netanyahu.
Eleven days after his tweet dismissing the prime minister, Gantz found himself elected Knesset speaker.
In between, Blue and White pushed out MKs from the right-wing bloc who served as committee chairmen and attempted to do the same to then-speaker Yuli Edelstein, arguing that Gantz had the support of the majority of the Knesset – though custom in the legislature had always been to wait for a new government to be formed. Edelstein ended up resigning following a court order to allow a vote on his removal, and it looked like Blue and White candidate Meir Cohen was a sure thing.
When Gantz submitted his candidacy as Knesset speaker it sent shock waves through the political field. It wasn’t that he so coveted the position – in fact, he was caught on camera joking to MK Miki Haimovich that he never before hoped to win a vote for a job that he didn’t want. Gantz became Knesset speaker as a placeholder to stop further moves hostile to Netanyahu in the Knesset and facilitate continued coalition talks.
This showed just how serious he was in negotiating a unity government with Netanyahu.
It also led Blue and White to break apart, with Yair Lapid-led Yesh Atid and Moshe Ya’alon’s Telem forming a separate faction. Gantz had broken the agreement forming the Blue and White bloc, which stipulated that a Yesh Atid MK would get the role of Knesset speaker.
But more than that, Lapid and Ya’alon, who had both been politically burned by Netanyahu in the past, had no trust in the prime minister, and for that reason – and because Netanyahu is under indictment on several counts of corruption – did not want to be in a government with him.
So Gantz was left with less than half of Blue and White – 15 seats out of the 33 it won – compared to Likud’s 36 and the 58-seat right-wing bloc. If Labor’s announced merger with Blue and White becomes official, Gantz’s seats will grow to 17.
In theory, the problem of Gantz being overpowered was going to be solved by having a “parity government,” in which each political side had an equal number of cabinet ministers. In practice, the two Blue and White rebels making up the Derech Eretz Party, plus MK Orly Levy-Abecassis, meant there were 61 right-wing MKs in the burgeoning coalition that could overwhelm Gantz’s centrists in any Knesset vote, even if there was a tie in the cabinet.
As coalition talks went on, they became mired by disagreements over the application of Israeli law in Judea and Samaria, and the judiciary. Gantz and Netanyahu seem to have reached an agreement on postponing settlement annexation, but there was a lot of back-andforth on the legal system.
Gantz threatened to pass laws in the Knesset that would hurt Netanyahu – instituting term limits and prohibiting a prime minister to remain in office if indicted – if negotiations didn’t go in Blue and White’s direction on judicial matters. But while there was a majority for such moves weeks ago, the parties to Gantz’s left no longer have any trust in him, and could pull the old parliamentary excuse of “our almost-identical draft bill is better” and not support him. The threat seemed to work on Netanyahu, but Gantz’s leverage here is wearing thin.
Netanyahu agreed that Gantz could appoint the justice minister, but wanted veto power – and did not like Gantz’s top candidate, MK Avi Nissenkorn. Gantz sought to block changes to the way judges are selected, and Netanyahu leaned toward a yes, but outrage from within Likud stopped him from agreeing to it.
Over a week ago, the sides said a coalition agreement was ready and it just needed to be signed. But it has not been signed, with some on Gantz’s side accusing Netanyahu of using delay tactics. Now, Gantz’s time as the prime ministerial nominee is about to run out.
Was this all a bait-andswitch maneuver by Netanyahu so he can remain prime minister without a rotation with Gantz in a year and a half? It’s unclear.
When the prime minister called for an emergency unity government, he did not seem to have any way to remain in office other than working with Gantz. But now that Blue and White is a fraction of its former size and there is a majority for rightwing moves in the Knesset, Netanyahu may believe that new options have opened up.
This does not mean that the door is closed on a unity government, and in fact Likud and Blue and White released a joint statement on Sunday night – one of the surest signs that negotiations are truly taking place.
But if talks continue past Monday night, Netanyahu will have even greater advantages over Gantz than before. Netanyahu has political experience and almost unmatched savvy, along with far more MKs behind him. But, hey, Gantz will still be Knesset speaker. • government. Hendel warned on Sunday that Netanyahu could miss a historic opportunity to apply sovereignty to Judea and Samaria if he does not have Gantz in his government.
Perhaps Hendel and Hauser would change their minds if the 21 days when any MK can form a government are almost over and they are the ones who will decide between an election and a Netanyahu-led government without Gantz. But we are not there yet.
All Gantz has to do is give Netanyahu some kind of guarantee that he will be his guarantee to prevent the Supreme Court from ruling that he cannot form a government and a deal can be reached by Monday. There are multiple ways of doing that, from passing bills to Gantz testifying before the judges.
If Rivlin succeeds at saving the country from six more wasteful weeks of political stalling, he will be remembered as the country’s savior. And if he prevents Israelis from eating more bitter herbs from their politicians, no one will recall who asked him the four questions. • excluded, the number of sick people in Bnei Brak is declining and soon there will be no reason to impose restrictions on Bnei Brak. Bnei Brak can be opened.”
While Jerusalem has the most coronavirus cases, it has five times as many people as Bnei Brak.
Troops from the Etzion Brigade along with Magen David Adom carried out 400 coronavirus tests in the haredi settlement of Beitar Illit on Sunday.
Though the update on the number of coronavirus tests published by the Health Ministry showed a decrease, Lt.-Col. Yakir Abergil, deputy commander of the brigade, told The Jerusalem Post that troops began testing community members with the national rescue service for the deadly virus and hopes to increase the number of tests as time goes on.
Beitar Illit, with a population of 59,240 has also been hit hard by the virus. According to the Health Ministry, there are currently 917 people infected there.
As part of the IDF’s effort to curb the spread of the virus in the ultra-Orthodox sector, Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Yossi Bachar is overseeing operations in Beitar Illit.
According to Maj. Sultan Eyadat, an officer in the brigade’s Reconnaissance Battalion, while residents usually ask troops to bring them specific food products or missing medicines, residents have also asked that food they prepared for family members also be delivered by troops.
“It’s really, really meaningful to be able to get to people and give them what they need – to bring what they need to their door,” Eyadat told the Post.
According to Eyadat, kids are excited to see the troops, and people on the street and neighbors clap and salute them when they deliver the food.
“The residents are really happy that we are coming to them and helping them,” he said. “I will remember this mission my entire life.” • in the country.
The delivery was arranged via the Directorate of Production and Procurement at the Israel Defense Ministry.
Eytan Halon contributed to this report. •