Netanyahu, Gantz Set to Meet Sunday

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is set to meet Sunday with Blue and White head Benny Gantz. The meeting will take place at the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, with speculation that the two will discuss security issues as a springboard for talks on a unity government. The conversation will be private.

With that, pundits said that it was unlikely there would be any breakthroughs in the meeting. Gantz has made a point of seeking meetings with all party heads, with Maariv calling the discussion “a courtesy meeting.” On Monday, Gantz is set to meet with Labor’s Amir Peretz and Orly-Levi Abukasis.

After being appointed last Wednesday by President Reuven Rivlin to form a government, Gantz on Thursday spoke to nearly all party leaders – but appeared to be no closer to his goal of forming a government, as members of the rightwing-religious bloc formed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu unanimously told him that they were strictly interested in serving in a government headed by Netanyahu, or at least one in which he had a rotation agreement with Gantz. A number of party leaders – including United Torah Judaism’s Rabbi Yaakov Litzman and Shas leader Rabbi Aryeh Deri – told him that they were not even interested in a face-to-face meeting

And that is unlikely to change, a senior Likud official told Yisrael Hayom. “To form a government Gantz needs one of the parties in the rightwing bloc, and there is no scenario in which any party in the bloc will leave to join Gantz’s government without the rest of the bloc. Under these circumstances there is no chance Gantz will be able to form a government. I hope that we will be able to achieve a unity government and avoid a third election campaign,” the official said.