The ruling Yesh Atid party will not agree to serve in a government led by National Unity chief Benny Gantz, officials from Yesh Atid told Kan Wednesday.
Defense Minister Gantz has campaigned on his cordial relationship with the two haredi parties, arguing that he is better positioned than Prime Minister Yair Lapid to form a new government without relying on the Hadash-Ta’al, a joint ticket of two Arab factions.
But Yesh Atid officials cited in Wednesday’s report ruled out such an arrangement, vowing not to sit in a government led by Gantz.
“We won’t sit under him,” the officials said, even if Gantz manages to draw Shas and United Torah Judaism away from the right-wing bloc.
Gantz, the Yesh Atid officials continued, “is living in a fantasy” if he believes that the largest party in the same bloc will agree to sit under him as prime minister, calling the haredi issue irrelevant.
“The time has come for Gantz to accept the fact that Lapid is the leader of the bloc, and only he can form a government. If Gantz wants to bring the haredim, he is welcome to bring them into a Lapid government, but there will be no other government on the center-left.”