The two rivals now on the verge of a deal
V AS THE last day of Pesach began, Israel almost had a new government.
Benny Gantz, who had spent much of the past 24 hours cloistered with Benjamin Netanyahu in the prime minister’s residence, even tweeted a hopeful photograph of himself on Tuesday afternoon being driven back home from Jerusalem promising to “continue making the right decisions for the citizens of Israel and act for unity and reconciliation in our nation.”
A day earlier, very different tones were being heard in Mr Gantz’s inner circle. They accused Mr Netanyahu of reneging on his previous agreements. They threatened Mr Gantz would make a speech that evening accusing the prime minister of negotiating in bad faith while Israel so urgently needs a stable government to contend with the coronavirus pandemic.
The threat seemed to have worked: Mr Netanyahu called, requesting that negotiating teams be reconvened and promising the remaining differences could be ironed out. He announced his own briefing, 45 minutes before Mr Gantz’s, and while it was mainly focused on pandemic issues, he said that “we will continue to make every effort to form a unity government.”
When Mr Gantz went on air at 9.15pm on Monday, he was passionate, even angry, but his anger was pointed almost exclusively at his former partners in Blue & White who have been accusing him over the past two weeks of “crawling to Netanyahu.” To the prime minister, he had more more collegial words: “This is our moment of truth, it’s either an emergency national unity government or a unnecessary fourth election.”
Mr Netanyahu responded in a tweet: “Benny, I’m waiting for you in the PM’s residence in Jerusalem — come and meet and we’ll sign this evening.”
They met and whatever transpired in the residence was sufficient for Likud and Blue & White to send a joint request to President Reuven Rivlin, a minute before Mr Gantz’s mandate to form a government expired at midnight, to extend it. The president gave them another 48 hours. For Mr Netanyahu to have joined a request to extend his rival’s mandate, he must have been pretty certain that they had a deal.
At the JC went to press on Tuesday, the negotiation teams were set to meet again on Wednesday night, as soon as Pesach was over. The expectation in Jerusalem was that mere formalities remain and that Mr Netanyahu had agreed to return to the agreement reached a week earlier where Likud would have no say on the appointments of judges. The “rotation deal” whereby Mr Gantz would replace him in eighteen months is included.
But these are Israeli politics and a lot can happen in the time Mr Netanyahu will be closed in at home with his wife Sara and son Yair over the chag. They are his closest advisors and extremely unhappy at the thought of having to move out of the residence next October. They will read drafts of the coalition agreement closely, looking for any loophole, real or imaginary.
This will be a tense ending of Pesach in Jerusalem and not just because of the Coronavirus curfew. The festival may end in a unity government but no one is banking on it until the two Benjamins have actually signed.