Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz said on Tuesday in an interview with Ynet that if he wins the elections he’ll turn to the Likud to form a government under his leadership, adding that he won’t ask the Chareidi parties to join him because he’s “against extortion.”

“We’re against extortion,” Gantz said. “We’ll turn to Likud in order to form a government based on the secular majority in Israel.”

Gantz’s inflammatory words are a departure from his statements to date, in which he expressed his openness and interest in working together with the Charedi community. He also has distanced himself from anti-Chareidi and anti-religious sentiments that fellow Blue and White leader Yair Lapid has expressed.

Apparently, Gantz is heeding the statements of the Chareidi parties who have unequivocally expressed that they will not join a government with Blue and White with Yair Lapid and his party Yesh Atid as one of its partners, and has given up on a political partnership with the Chareidi parties.

Gantz added that Blue and White will not split into separate parties following the elections. “I have no intention of breaking up the alternative [governing party] we established in such a short time. Blue and White is here to stay with its current composition.”

In reference to sitting in the same government as Netanyahu, Gantz said that it won’t be possible anyway due to his pending indictment and “in my opinion he has completed his contribution to the state of Israel.”

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(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)