JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seeing his chances of an outright election victory slip away as final votes were counted, asked his chief rival on Thursday to come negotiate a possible power-sharing agreement.
But Benny Gantz, head of the center-left Blue and White party and increasingly buoyed by his decisive first-place finish in Tuesday’s election, wasn’t moved by an overture that came only after the late election results showed his lead widening. The former Army chief of staff said he was open to forming a unity government as long he was at the top of it.
“We will listen carefully to anyone, but we will not surrender to any dictates,” Gantz said in his first public address since the election. He said he remained committed to pursuing “a broad and liberal coalition headed by myself.”
It wasn’t the only time Netanyahu extended a hand to Gantz Thursday and failed to get a warm reception either time. When the two encountered each other at a memorial service for the late Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Netanyahu leaned in for a handshake, leaving Gantz looking bemused and impatient.
Instead, Gantz assumed the mantle of confident victor, pointing out in a speech that his party had won the election and making clear that, while he endorsed the idea of a “unity government,” he planned to rule.
“We will listen carefully to anyone, but we will not surrender to any dictates,” said Gantz, ignoring the Prime Minister’s invitation to come for immediate discussions.
Jilted, Netanyahu expressed disappointment. “I was surprised and disappointed that at this time Benny Gantz still refuses to respond to my call to meet,” he said in a tweet.
The moment marked Gantz, for now, as the one with momentum.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seeing his chances of an outright election victory slip away as final votes were counted, invited his chief rival on Thursday to discussions over a possible power-sharing agreement.
But Benny Gantz, head of the center-left Blue and White party, showed no immediate sign of taking him up on the invitation. Buoyed by his party’s first-place finish in the election Tuesday, Gantz said he was open to forming a unity government as long he was at the top of it.
“We will listen carefully to anyone, but we will not surrender to any dictates,” Gantz said in his first public address since election night. He said he remained committed to pursuing “a broad and liberal coalition headed by myself.”
With 97 percent of the vote counted, Blue and White has won 33 seats in the parliament, or Knesset, and Likud has 31.
Twice on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended a hand to his election challenger, former Army chief Benny Gantz. Neither time did Netanyahu get a warm grasp in return.
Netanyahu leaned in for a handshake when the two encountered each other at a memorial service for the late Prime Minister Shimon Peres, leaving Gantz looking bemused and impatient.
The response was no better when Netanyahu, seeing his chances of an outright election victory slip away as final votes were being counted, invited his chief rival to discussions over a possible power-sharing agreement. Gantz showed no sign of taking him up on the invitation and, buoyed by his Blue and White party’s first-place finish in the election Tuesday, asserted he was open to forming a unity government only as long he was at the top of it.
Assming the mantle of a confident victor, Gantz said, “We will listen carefully to anyone, but we will not surrender to any dictates.” Ignoring Netanyahu’s invitation to come talk “anytime today,” Gantz pledged in his first public speech since election night to pursue “a broad and liberal coalition headed by myself.”
Jilted, Netanyahu expressed dismay. “I was surprised and disappointed that at this time Benny Gantz still refuses to respond to my call to meet,” he said in a tweet.
Twice on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu extended a hand to his election challenger, former Army chief Benny Gantz. Neither time did Netanyahu get a warm grasp in return.
Netanyahu leaned in for a handshake when the two encountered each other at a memorial service for the late Prime Minister Shimon Peres, leaving Gantz looking bemused and impatient.
The response was no better when Netanyahu invited Gantz to come negotiate a power-sharing agreement between their political parties aimed at resolving the stalemate following Israel’s election on Tuesday. With the overture extended shortly after the nearly completed vote county showed Gantz’s Blue and White party extending its lead over Netanyahu’s Likud, the challenger’s answer amounted to “meh.”
Instead, Gantz assumed the mantle of confident victor, pointing out in a speech that his party had won the election and making clear that, while he enorsed the idea of a “unity government,” he would be the one to lead it.
“We will listen carefully to anyone, but we will not surrender to any dictates,” Gantz said in his first public address since the election. Ignoring Netanyahu’s invitation to come talk “anytime today,” Gantz pledged to pursue “a broad and liberal coalition headed by myself.”
Jilted, Netanyahu expressed dismay. “I was surprised and disappointed that at this time Benny Gantz still refuses to respond to my call to meet,” he said in a tweet.
The moment marked Gantz, for now, as the one with momentum.
“I think what is happening now is that he can be seen as a very legitimate candidate for prime minister,” said Amotz Esa-El, a longtime political analyst and fellow at Jerusalem’s Shalom Hartman Institute.
In the faceoff between Netanyahu and Gantz, it’s tempting to ask who will blink first. Gantz has pledged
But in the grinding weeks of post-election maneuvering to come, it may be more apt to wonder who will sag like a tired balloon first. On Thursday at least, whether Netanyahu’s offer was a gambit, a tactic or a white flag, many observers detected a whiff of deflation from the country’s longest-serving prime minister
“I think that is part of his illustrious career’s death pangs,” Amotz Asa-El said. “It may have been sincere but it was very late in the day.”
A majority of 61 seats is needed to form a government, and with 97 percent of the vote counted, Blue and White has won 33 seats in the parliament, or Knesset, and Likud has 31. It was shortly after an updated vote count gave Gantz an additional seat that Netanyahu made his surprise pitch.
“During the elections, I called for the establishment of the right-wing government,” said Netanyahu in a statement. “Unfortunately, election results show that this is not possible. Therefore, there is no choice but to form a broad unity government that is as wide as possible.”
Netanyahu’s turnabout came as Israel’s fractious political system enters the dealmaking phase, with the two main parties jockeying for the support of other factions until one of them can form a government.
The shortest path to a majority for either major party is to turn to the other for a coalition and share the prime minister’s job and other top positions on a rotating basis. Israel has had several such unity governments, including a period in the 1980s when rivals Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Shamir shared power.
At the memorial service for Peres, Netanyahu called for the parties to follow that example of power sharing.
“When there was no clear outcome from the Knesset elections, Shimon chose national unity. He and Yitzhak Shamir agreed to cooperate, to navigate Israel’s path to safety,” Netanyahu said in remarks at the service.
But in today’s Israel – a polarized country with Netanyahu one of its most polarizing figures – a unity government would be a tough sell, even if the two party leaders begin to talk.
Gantz, and others in his fold, have repeatedly ruled out serving with Likud unless someone other than Netanyahu leads the party. Many of the right-wing and religious parties that support Likud have no love for the centrists and secularists behind Gantz.
And even as he called for Gantz to join him in forming that government, Netanyahu worked to lock up support on his right. Likud announced commitments of support from three small parties that had united behind him – two representing Israel’s ultra-Orthodox and a third that is also religious but more nationalistic in nature.
“Yesterday, I met with right-wing party leaders and we agreed that we would go into this coalition negotiation as one bloc,” said Netanyahu in his statement. “Now I call on you, Benny Gantz, to join us in establishing a broad unity government today. The people expect us, both of us, to show responsibility and work for cooperation.”
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who will select one of the party leaders to have first crack at forming a new government, welcomed the emerging notes of cooperation and called the rivals to negotiate.
“I hear, loud and clear, the voices calling for a broad and stable national unity government, and I congratulate you, Mr. Prime Minister, on joining that call this morning,” Rivlin said in remarks at the Peres memorial service. “The responsibility for making it happen falls to you elected officials, especially the leaders of the major parties. The citizens of Israel have spoken.”
On Sunday, representatives of each of the eight parties that won Knesset seats in Tuesday’s election will travel to the president’s official residence in Jerusalem to formally recommend a candidate for prime minister. The president will then need to decide who to task with forming the next government. It is unclear when he will make that announcement.
Traditionally, if the chosen leader fails to assemble a government after 28 days (or 42 if an extension is granted), the candidate will return the mandate to the president and the president will offer the chance to someone else.
But in May, after Netanyahu was stymied by his former ally Avigdor Liberman, he maneuvered to have parliment call Israel’s second election in five months. Liberman, head of secular nationalist party who again could play a kingmaker role, seemed to indicate Thursday he would recommend that Gantz be the first to try.
Gantz’s faction said it would meet to discuss Netanyahu’s overture. But analysts cautioned that Netanyahu’s strong alliance with parties on the extreme right wing and the ultra-Orthodox would complicate negotiations. Overhanging all the maneuvering are pending corruption charges against Netanyahu, with a hearing scheduled for Oct. 3. If Gantz does get a chance to form a government next week, he may have every reason to take his time on the theory that Netanyahu will be even weaker even within his own party when he is enmeshed in a formal legal battle.
“[Gantz] will let the political process by overshadowed by the legal process that is about to begin,” said Esa-El. “I think his calculation is then Netanyahu’s own college in the Likud will show him the door.”
Gantz campaigned on a platform of not joining a coalition with a leader that who was under indictment, and much of his success, analysts say, hinges on his promise not to join Netanyahu if Attorney General Avichai Mendalblit Mandelblit does decides to take him to trial on three criminal cases centered on bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
Dan Avnon, chairman of the Political Science Department at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said the election results showed that the majority of Israelis want a “stable, normal and functioning democracy.”
“This election put a stop sign to the impression that the edges determine the center, that the extremists determine the center,” he said.