Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz on Saturday night to "stop the madness" and enter a unity coalition with his Likud party after reports surfaced over the weekend that the former IDF chief was preparing to form a minority government backed by Arab lawmakers.
Israel Hayom first reported that the leaders of Blue and White and Yisrael Beytenu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman had agreed to expedite talks for the formation of a minority government supported by MKs from the Joint Arab List, with the purpose of pressuring Netanyahu to soften his conditions for entering a national unity government.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
According to the agreement, and with just three days remaining until Gantz's deadline for forming the next government expires, the sides will move toward a minority government while giving Netanyahu the opportunity to enter a unity government without his right-wing-ultra-Orthodox bloc of 55 MKs, and with other concessions regarding his immunity in the face of possible indictments over corruption charges.
If Netanyahu doesn't bend, Blue and White and Yisrael Beytenu could form the minority government and replace Netanyahu as early as this week.
Lieberman, who has agreed in principle to the move within the wider framework of his efforts to help forge a unity government and prevent a third election, still has not committed to joining such a minority government if Netanyahu ultimately refuses to soften his stance.
Taking to social media on Saturday night, Netanyahu insisted that such an arrangement would be a security disaster for Israel.
"Have you lost your minds? There is still time to stop this madness," Netanyahu said in a video clip posted to Facebook. "Come to your senses and come to the same unity government that the people expect us to form together."
Earlier Saturday, Netanyahu reportedly held an "emergency" call with top Likud party officials and cabinet ministers to warn that Gantz was preparing to form a minority government with the support of the Joint Arab List faction.
In that conversation, Netanyahu also reportedly accused Arab MKs of being "supporters of Islamic Jihad and Hamas," and said he was certain that Yisrael Beytenu party would support a Gantz-led minority government.
Blue and White, meanwhile, confirmed it was indeed pushing toward a minority government that would lean on the support of Arab MKs. Party officials said such a government would be a "transition government."
"We want to come to terms now with Likud over a unity government," party officials said.
"We haven't given up [on that] because we believe it is possible, and we are working to that end on multiple avenues, but we are at the end [of the president's mandate] and prefer to present a transition government. A minority government isn't something we are striving toward, but there's nothing we can do. This is what will cause the other parties (referring to those comprising the right-wing bloc) to hold negotiations with us.
"Such a government will give us Benny Gantz and prime minister," they added.
Late last month, Gantz was tasked by President Reuven Rivlin with the responsibility of forming the next government, after Netanyahu failed to cobble together a narrow right-wing government following Israel's general election on September 17.
Defense Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday also pleaded with Gantz, asking him not to form a minority government supported by the Joint Arab List.
"If the Israeli government was dependent on members of the Joint Arab List, the 25 terrorists who were eliminated this week would still be alive. From the perspective of those MKs, the IDF's action was 'murder,' in their words. I am calling on Benny Gantz not to lend his hand to this. The order of the day: unity government," Bennett wrote on Twitter.
Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) told Army Radio Sunday morning that "Blue and White has decided to seize power even at the cost of harming the country's democracy and security. The Likud wouldn't have agreed to establish a minority government and do this with the [support] of MKs who identify with the enemy. A comparison cannot be made between tactical negotiations and what currently is on the table."
A senior Joint Arab List official, meanwhile, said Sunday that the faction would not support a minority government that includes Lieberman or his party.
"All the speculations and prognostications whereby we will back a minority government headed by Gantz together with Lieberman are another spin job from the school of Bibi [Benjamin] Netanyahu," a Joint Arab List official told Israel Hayom.
"The possibility of us supporting a minority government headed by Gantz is only realistic if such a government includes the backing of the Labor and Democratic Union parties. We won't cooperate with Lieberman – point-blank," the official concluded.
