In an interview on 103FM Tuesday, left-wing activist Eldad Yaniv pushed back on criticism of the Left's apparent willingness to rely on support from the Joint List in order to form a coalition.
He argued that Blue and White chief Benny Gantz "has no way of securing an alternative government without the support of the (Arabs)."
Yaniv received wide-spread media coverage as leader of a two-year street protest against Prime Minister Netanyahu's alleged corruption. He founded a party by the name of “The Protest Movement Leads the Country" that failed to pass the threshold in the April 9, 2019 elections. Prior to that, Yaniv made an unsuccessful Knesset bid with his "New Land" party followed by a brief stint with Labor.
In what looks to be a tightly-contested third Knesset election of the calendar year, the Left will again have a hard time forming a coalition without support from the Joint List. In an attempt to prevent such a coalition from coming to fruition, right-wing parties have called for Benny Gantz and other Blue and White leaders to rule out cooperation with the Arab parties. Gantz, for his part, has maintained his unwillingness to sit with the Joint List but has come short of promising not to use support from Arab MK's to provide him with a vote of confidence without sitting in a Blue and White-led coalition.
Yaniv spoke to Ben Caspit and Yinon Magal about the big parties' renunciation of the Joint List. "We are approaching the third (election), and (the same mistakes are being repeated). It doesn't make any sense."
"Netanyahu used Arab votes when he selected the state comptroller, he used them for dissolving the Knesset, and in order to remove Netanyahu from (office), we have to use them (against him). No Balad MK will oppose removing Netanyahu from office."