Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Friday held a Zoom meeting with activists from his Blue and White Party, in which he revealed that he received an offer from the Likud on Thursday but rejected it outright.
"I have had no contacts with the Likud though they have tried to test the waters, including one attempt yesterday, [those who tried to contact me] got a bump to the nose," he said, as quoted by Channel 12 News. "Netanyahu has contributed a lot to the State of Israel in the past, but in recent years he has damaged statesmanship, endangered the rule of law and democracy and we will not join him."
Asked by the audience about the possibility of teaming with Netanyahu again, Gantz replied, "It's all stories made up by people, unfortunately on both sides, who supposedly want to use this story to strengthen their political status. Netanyahu wants to strengthen his position in the Likud, other people in the coalition can say that I am striving towards working with Netanyahu and then can blame me if the government disintegrates."
On the compromise with the opposition in the vote for the "From Uniform to University" law he said, "I am glad we passed the law, it was clear to me that it must pass that night for the benefit of the soldiers. We had support in the coalition but I'm not sure they really worked to pass that law. At the end of the day, we brought up the reservation of 75%, which is a total of 9% more, and we also received the support of the opposition. I also said in the Knesset plenum ‘tonight no one in the plenum won, only the soldiers won.’"
Gantz commented on the preparations for the Flag March that is scheduled to be held in Jerusalem and said, "We are permitted to do whatever we want in our capital city, they will not threaten our sovereignty. The reality of Jerusalem is always sensitive, and I call for avoiding any provocation along the way. We have no intention of violating any status quo on the Temple Mount, the police are there to prevent people from joining and creating deliberate friction."
"Hamas will not threaten our sovereignty," he stressed. "Last year Hamas decided to fire rockets in what started Operation Guardian of the Walls, an operation that it regrets and I guess this time it will be smart enough to avoid it."
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)