Chairman of the Degel Hatorah party MK Moshe Gafne, in the presence of the party leaders in the sukka of Yitzchak Ravitz in Telshe Stone, addressed the current political checkmate surrounding efforts by PM Netanyahu to form a coalition government.

According to Gafne, he has spoken with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the two agreed there is a dual loyalty; that the prime minister will remain loyal to the religious parties while the religious parties will do the same in return, maintaining their loyalty to Mr. Netanyahu. He explained that after PM Netanyahu returns the presidential mandate to President Rivlin, Mr. Rivlin will give it to MK Benny Gantz who chairs the Blue & White party, and while he too will have 28 days to attempt to form a coalition, he will be unable to do so.

Gafne explained that Gantz cannot rely on the Arabs, Avigdor Lieberman, or Mertz, citing such a reality is close to almost being a “non-reality”. He added that as things appear today, no one will succeed in forming a coalition government and at present, he is not ruling out the possibility that Israel will head to the polls for a third time in the hope of being able to form a new government. Gafne adds this has occurred in other countries like Spain, Italy, France and England, as well as others, repeatedly heading to the polls as there is no leadership.

Gafne explained in the history of the world, a lack of leadership leads to civil war, and this is extremely dangerous as Israel faces existential threats from Iran as well as other dangers which he is not at liberty to detail. “Instead of sitting and building budgets and plans, and these budgets would be allocated to deal with the advanced threats from Iran, we are addressing a year-long Knesset recess, nothing is done, matters are not weighed, money is not brought in, and reforms are not implemented”.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)