Orly Levy-Abekasis
Orly Levy-AbekasisRoy Alima/Flash 90

The chairwoman of the Gesher party, MK Orly Levy-Abekasis, on Thursday contacted President Reuven Rivlin and asked him to allow her to independently recommend one of the candidates to head the next government.

Levy-Abekasis made it clear to Rivlin that she is not part of the Labor-Meretz list, which is expected to recommend Benny Gantz for Prime Minister, and it is believed that she may recommend Binyamin Netanyahu as her preferred candidate to lead the next government.

Former Meretz MK Issawi Frej blasted Levy-Abekasis and wrote on Twitter, "Orly Levy did a trick on the left. Now is the time to learn lessons and realize that a strong left is a Jewish-Arab partnership and not giving a lift to the Knesset to right-wing men and women.”

Earlier this week, Levy-Abekasis announced that she would not support the formation of a minority government which is dependent on the outside support of the predominantly Arab Joint List.

A senior official close to Levy-Abekasis explained that the intention to “form a minority government at any cost that relies on the Joint List, including Balad, is contrary to Levy-Abekasis’ worldview, as well as the view of many of the supporters of Blue and White and the Labor party who oppose it."