PM Netanyahu and MK Gantz
PM Netanyahu and MK GantzTomer Neuberg & Olivier Fitoussi / Flash90

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Blue and White Chairman MK Benny Gantz and their respective negotiating teams on Tuesday morning met at the Prime Minister's Residence to discuss the formation of a unity government.

Attending the meeting were Blue and White MKs Gabi Ashkenazi and Avi Nissenkorn, as well as the party's adviser, Avi Licht. Yoram Turbowicz and Shalom Shlomo, also representing Blue and White, attended via Zoom.

The Likud's meeting included Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, Yaakov Atrakchi, and attorney Michael Rabilo.

Following the meeting, Gantz and Netanyahu said there had been "significant progress in negotiations."

On Monday, following Netanyahu's support of Gantz's request for an extension, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin extended Gantz's mandate to form a government until Wednesday at midnight.

Sources from the Yamina party said that in his negotiations with Blue and White, Netanyahu "is compromising on everything that is important to the right, and on his 'natural' partners, as he calls us."

"He will be left with [Labor MKs] Itzik Shmuli and Amir Peretz, the judicial cloning committee of the left, and sovereignty already won't happen, as everyone knows. From his perspective, he can use the right and throw it out. The throwing out will be mutual.

"Unfortunately as it turns out, Netanyahu is selling the judicial system and sovereignty to the left. If so, the era of the right-wing bloc has ended.

"This is a stab in the back of Religious Zionism, which walked together with him, and there will also be divorce proceedings. It is unthinkable that with 59 Knesset seats, he is giving everything to Gantz, who has 17 Knesset seats."