Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz on Friday addressed in a Facebook post the indictments against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
"Yesterday was a very sad evening for the State of Israel, including for me personally as someone who has known Netanyahu for years and worked with him. It is important that we all understand - the State of Israel has a law and every citizen is equal before it. I would like to back the law enforcement agencies today - continue to do your job fearlessly," he wrote.
"Back to the negotiations - we have less than three weeks left to try to prevent elections for the third time in a year,” he continued.
“Even though I have returned the mandate, I am continuing my efforts to achieve a majority in the Knesset to prevent elections. In the negotiations I conducted, I was ready for concessions, but not for concessions on the values on the basis of which I decided to enter politics,” wrote Gantz.
“Unfortunately, despite all my efforts to establish a broad and liberal unity government, Netanyahu refused to dismantle the immunity bloc he built. The bloc of Knesset members that is essential to Netanyahu harmed the very basic interests of Israeli citizens and the will of the voters,” he added.
"I made the decisions in the negotiations after multiple consultations, first and foremost with my colleagues in the leadership of Blue and White - Yair [Lapid], Gabi [Ashkenazi] and Bogie [Ya’alon]. The decision that unity with Netanyahu cannot be reached under the current conditions was made by me.”
“I have been in politics for almost a year, and am waiting for the moment when we stop dealing with what separates us and start dealing with what really interests the citizens of Israel - caring for the elderly, the health care system, the education of our children and of course - meeting the security challenges that lie ahead.”
“I will do everything possible to reach this moment as soon as possible. I will do everything possible to try and prevent unnecessary and expensive elections,” concluded Gantz.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)