United with Israel
The leaders of the two biggest parties met to discuss the possibility of a broad unity government.
By David Isaac, World Israel News
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz met on Sunday evening at the request of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, who led the meeting at his official residence in Jerusalem.
The discussion centered around the possibility of establishing an emergency unity government, according to reports.
Earlier on Sunday, Rivlin, who in the role of president is tasked with selecting the candidate most likely to succeed in forming a government, said he has decided to give Gantz the first opportunity after consulting with leaders of all of the parties elected to parliament.
However, pundits have cast doubts on Gantz’s abilities to form a government. Channel 12 journalist Amit Segal on Sunday says the odds that Gantz would succeed were “zero,” noting that two members of Gantz’s own party would oppose a “minority government” — that is, one that would rest on the support of the Arab party, the Joint List.
Segal says that neither of the two parties really wants to go to a fourth election. He said the chances were high that some kind of unity government would emerge.
Veteran commentator Ben-Dror Yemini, who writes a column for Yediot Ahronot, reached a similar conclusion, noting that the opposition within Gantz’s party to a government that depended in any way on the Joint List would likely torpedo the Blue and White leader’s efforts.
Yemini says Rivlin will knock heads together and insist on a national unity government with the leadership rotating between Netanyahu and Gantz.
Earlier on Sunday, Rivlin met with the various parties in the Knesset to hear whom they wanted to form a government. Sixty-one voiced support for Gantz. Two of them make very strange bedfellows – Israel Beiteinu led by Avigdor Liberman, who has referred to the Joint List as a 5th column and the Joint List itself, whose platform opposes Israel as a uniquely Jewish State.
At the president’s urging, after the meeting the two sides agreed to continue discussions between the Likud and Blue and White negotiating teams, according to a statement from Rivlin’s office.
最大的两个政党领导人举行会议，讨论建立广泛统一政府的可能性。应以色列总统鲁汶·里夫林的要求，世界以色列新闻总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡和蓝白党领袖本尼·甘茨在星期天晚上举行会晤。据报道，这次会议是在耶路撒冷正式住所领导下进行的。讨论的重点是建立一个紧急统一政府的可能性。
组建政府表示，在与当选国会所有政党领导人进行磋商后，他决定给甘茨第一个机会。然而，专家对甘茨组建政府的能力表示怀疑。第12频道的记者阿米特·西格尔（Amit Segal）周日表示，甘茨（Gantz）成功的几率是“零”，并指出甘茨本党的两名成员将反对“少数派政府”，也就是说，一个由阿拉伯党支持的政府，西格尔说，两党都没有真正想参加第四次选举。
他说，出现某种统一政府的可能性很高。为耶迪奥·阿赫罗诺特（Yediot Ahronot）撰写专栏的资深评论员本·德雷尔·叶米尼（Ben-Dror Yemini）得出了类似的结论，并指出甘茨党内反对政府的任何方式都存在依赖叶米尼说，里夫林将团结一致，坚持由内塔尼亚胡和甘茨之间轮换领导的全国统一政府。里夫林周日早些时候会见了以色列议会各党派。听听他们想组成政府的人。
对Gantz的支持为61。他们中的两个成为了非常奇怪的同胞-由阿维格多·利伯曼（Avigdor Liberman）领导的以色列贝特努（以色列Beiteinu），他将联合名单列为第五专栏，联合名单本身则反对以色列成为一个独特的犹太国家。联合主席敦促会后，根据里夫林办公室的一份声明，双方同意继续在利库德集团和蓝白谈判小组之间进行讨论。