As Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gathers a right-wing bloc in order to pressure Benny Gantz into negotiations to form a unity government, Gantz responded by attempting to strengthen his own position. According to report on Channel 13, the Blue and White party has committed to Avigdor Lieberman that they will take his Yisrael Beiteinu party into the government with them should a national unity government occur.

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It is believed that this commitment came about in order to prevent Lieberman from once again joining a right-wing government.

The report added that the Blue and White party is also attempting to create an agreement to form a defacto bloc together with the Labor party. The Blue and White party is also planning to ask the Democratic Camp and the Arab parties to recommend that Gantz be tapped to form the government. The other tactic that the party is undertaking is attempting to gather a majority of MKs to depose Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein in order to prevent him from dispersing the Knesset once again at the Prime Minister’s behest.

On Sunday, President Rivlin is expected to begin summoning parties to recommend who they want to bear the task of forming a coalition government. The meetings are expected to last two days, at the end of which, Rivlin will summon the appropriate parties and task one of them with forming a government.

The meetings between the President and the parties will be shown via live feed in order to display more transparency to the Israeli public.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)