Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called for an emergency national unity government n Thursday night in the face of the Coronavirus crisis affecting the country.

At a press conference in Jerusalem, he called for “putting politics aside” and “focusing only on the health and the lives of the citizens of Israel.”

Netanyahu made his statement during his announcement regarding the closure of schools and universities across Israel until after Pesach. During the speech, Netanyahu said: “53 years ago, just before the start of the six-day war, an emergency national government was formed in Israel. Israel unified together as one and was victorious in the war. I am calling to create a similar government today, even tonight.”

“We need an emergency national unity government, without any hesitations, without any objections. This will be an emergency government that will exist for a limited time period. Together we will fight for the lives of tens of thousands of Israelis. We need to put all politics aside. After we win there will be time to come back to this point. But for now, we need to act responsibly for our country, and this national and personal responsibility outweighs all other considerations.”

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Gantz accepted Netanyahu’s request to speak about a unity government. But he conditioned it on all eight factions in the Knesset joining a wide coalition, including the Joint List of Arab parties.

Other factions leaders also called for an emergency unity government earlier in the day. Naftali Bennett from the Yamina party and Avigdor Lieberman from Yisrael Beiteinu both called for a unity government. Lieberman told reporters in Russian that the country needed an emergency government in light of the Coronavirus and the economic toll that it is about to take on Israel, the country needs a government now. Lieberman added that Likud and Blue and White together have 68 seats and that they could form a government by themselves without the need for any other partners. He also added that such a government would receive the support of all of the Zionist parties in the Knesset.

MK Gideon Sa’ar also called for an emergency government in order to deal with the Coronavirus epidemic. MK Yoaz Hendel from the Blue and White party tweeted: “From the very beginning we needed a unity government in order to heal the Israeli public. By now this is already a “Tzav 8” (referring to immediate emergency conscription procedures of the IDF that require soldiers to report to base within 8 hours)

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)