Gantz
Gantzצילום: מאיר אליפור

Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz attended the Jerusalem conference of the Besheva newspaper this morning (Sunday) and spoke with journalist Amit Segal about his political situation and his relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Gantz referred to the question of whether he would recommend Yair Lapid or Naftali Bennett to the prime minister, answering: "We will finish the election and see who has the ability and chance to form a government. Anyone who is not Netanyahu and will present basic positions with which to promote Israeli society and rehabilitate society is someone we can work with."

"The real question is what the public thinks it really wants. We in Blue and White will continue to offer a statesmanlike and honest path and we will know how to respect other positions as well. I appreciate that Netanyahu will do everything so that we will not be in the Communications and Justice Ministries, stop his trial and promote the French law. I will do my best. not to allow this. I also have a great anger on a personal level against the prime minister. He violated a contract with me that was supposed to serve both of us and especially the Israeli society that needed three years of a quiet unity government," Gantz said.

"Netanyahu wanted to dissolve the government in order to advance the cancellation of his trial. He is paying a price for dissolving the government and elections. For him it is convenient. He is ready to be prime minister of a transition government from here to the next round. I did not come for a short round. I had a political accident in that I went with Netanyahu. I will recover and come back and grow. The scenario of me being prime minister is still possible. In the long run, Blue and White is the centrist party and in the end most Israelis agree on most things and disagree on some things. I am on the side of the majority.

Addressing reports that he had sought to form a government with the Joint Arab List, "We examined the possibility of sitting with the joint list, but we could not form a government without the joint list. We were only 58 seats. Then the coronavirus arrived and we saw the consequences. When we went to the polls the coronavirus was not yet on the agenda."