By Ted Belman.
As Min of Defence, Gantz gave away Area C. by permitting the illegal Arab construction. He also kissed up to Abbas begging him to stop the violence that Abbas was responsible for. He also turned a blind eye to Abbas’ support of terrorism and kept giving the PA more money. He should never be Min of Defense let alone the Prime Minister. Sa’ar, who used to fashion himself as a right winger when he was in Likud, should now be held responsible for the policies of Gantz because he is supporting him.
If this is the center, I want no part in it.
Any party that doesn’t pledge itself to keep all of Jerusalem and all of area C should not be supported.
Ben-Gvir responded to the reports as well, saying, “The union between Sa’ar and Gantz shows Sa’ar’s desire to connect with the Left. Benny Gantz, who has proven to be a leftist who wants to promote Oslo II, meets with the terrorist Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] and makes him relevant.
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Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s Blue and White Party and Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope Party are merging, the two announced in a press conference on Sunday night.
“Today we are laying the foundation stone of the next government,” Gantz said. “The edges and extremes have set the tone for too long, and the Israeli center remained without a voice.”
“The citizens of Israel need a functioning government that will take care of its national security,” Gantz said.
“We arrived at good agreements that will enable us to serve the people of Israel as two parties and movements that express the responsible, realistic, secure and liberal voice,” he said, hinting that their two parties will still maintain separate identities under the same list.
Gantz called on all Israelis to join who recognize Israel as a “strong, confident, Jewish and democratic state but do not have racist opinions.”
Sa’ar spoke next, and stressed that the merger would be one of the “patriotic Right” but having “centrist national-security” policies.
“Today, Israel needs a new hope, and a move that will pull it from crisis to progress,” he said, alluding to his New Hope Party.
Sa’ar also praised his new running mate.
“Benny stood strong versus the poisonous machine,” he said. “The decisions Gantz made were for the good of the country, and he made them and was able to cope with the backlash,” Sa’ar said.
New Hope will reportedly receive about a third of the joint party’s seats, versus two-thirds for Blue and White, according to N12.
Sa’ar will be put in second place on the list, Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton will be in fifth place, and Construction and Housing Minister Ze’ev Elkin will be seventh, according to the report.
What about the leftovers?
Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel – who had been an MK in both Blue and White and New Hope – will not be on the list, the report said.
Hendel and fellow MK Zvika Hauser barred Gantz from forming a government earlier in the election cycle, so the defense minister reportedly was not willing to allow them to join.
Hendel reportedly met with Yamina chairwoman Ayelet Shaked on Sunday, possibly to discuss entering her party.
In addition, recent reports have indicated that former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot is considering running in the upcoming election and is debating whether to join Yesh Atid or Blue and White.
If he joins the new Gantz-Sa’ar party, he would be placed second or third on the list, and might receive a few more spots to fill with people of his choice.
It is not clear whether Deputy Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana of Yamina, who reportedly was looking into joining a different party, will join the list – and if so, which slot he will be given.
In a Channel 12 poll conducted 10 days ago, a merger of Blue and White with New Hope would give the combined party 15 seats, making it the third largest after Likud and Yesh Atid.
Gantz’s Hopes
Gantz’s thinking is that if he can win between 12 and 15 seats, he can be the dealmaker after the next election and potentially become the prime minister.
This would be relevant if neither Lapid nor Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu can form a coalition. In that case, Gantz can potentially play both sides against one another.
On the one hand, he can tell the Israel electorate that by joining Netanyahu, he is preventing a sixth election – like Bennett did when joining with Lapid – and that he will be able to prevent people like far-right MK and Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben-Gvir from becoming a minister in the cabinet. In this case, Gantz would be able to justify the decision to again join Netanyahu and he would also be able to demand and receive the right to go first in a prime ministerial rotation.
The Likud responded to the merger, saying, “We don’t get involved in how the Left splits its votes.”
United Torah Judaism MK Uri Maklev responded to the news that Hendel would not be part of the joint Blue and White-New Hope list, saying that “Those who have violated the holiness of Israel with arrogance now stand and court the gates with great self-contempt.
“Although the political map is not yet clear, we already see Hendel and Kahana courting the party gates, standing despised time and time again and thrown from one to the other,” Maklev said. “They are immediately paying for the harm to the ultra-Orthodox public and the saints of Israel. Sa’ar dumped Hendel, and Matan Kahana is looking for a home when he no longer serves as a minister and does not understand why he is not wanted anywhere.”
Ben-Gvir responded to the reports as well, saying, “The union between Sa’ar and Gantz shows Sa’ar’s desire to connect with the Left. Benny Gantz, who has proven to be a leftist who wants to promote Oslo II, meets with the terrorist Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] and makes him relevant. The home of right-wing voters is Otzma Yehudit.”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356480
Why is any of this such a surprise?
I posted here many times that the Government of Israel has been boiling the frog slowly for decades, and the TSS has never been off the table no matter who was prime minister with Netanyahu actually being the biggest promoter of it (I don’t want to bother posting his actual record here but it is really easy to look up for anyone who cares for the facts – I know, I know – it was the terrible pressure he was under).
Now they are planning to announce it to the stunned public as something that already exists and cannot be reversed.
I am still hoping for a miracle.
email rec’d;
I just made two corrections
“should not be supported.”
“should be held responsible”
This practice of “rotating PMs” is bad for the state, bad for continuity of policies which have been proposed or backed by the first incumbent, who, except for the .traitorous Bennett, has been the leader of the largest and strongest Party of any Coalition…and they are ALL coalitions.
Israel’s greatest successes on the World Stage have been brought about under the leadership of Netanyahu, who, although leading the largest Party, never has had a majority, but allies in other Parties faithful to his leadership-with NO rotations. .
Those two…Mutt and Jeff, seem to have been regarding each other as a Mosiach…judging by the amount of oil they’ve been pouring over one another…..disgusting. smelly ….Pooh.
@Ted
Well Stated! Also, it should not be forgotten that Gantz personally authorized the loans to the Fatah’s terror regime to circumvent the Taylor Force Act provisions which prevent the payment of the pay for slay claims to the families of PA terrorists. The loans that Gantz personally authorized amounted in nearly $200 million which can be freely allocated as payment for the murder and butchery of Israeli innocents. This amounts to more than half the funds allocated to the debt paid to Abu Mazen’s terrorists. Is this the center that Israel seeks? I think the Alinsky games of claiming that Leftists are either on the Right or in the center should be labeled as the falsehood for which it stands clearly established. Still, it seems to have provided a happy homestead for Saar, the man whose sense of righteous indignation would not allow him to sit with a man who had been indicted on coerced testimonies, which must be far more unquieting to his sensibilities than to sit with a man who helps finance wanton murder of his fellow citizens.