The Times of Israel reports: Blue and White leader Benny Gantz on Thursday dismissed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer of a unity government that includes all the religious right-wing parties, insisting that the next coalition should have himself as prime minister, not Netanyahu, and be committed to liberal policies on religious issues.
Earlier in the day, after the leaders of all the parties in the right-wing religious bloc signed a document pledging to recommend Netanyahu as the next prime minister and vowing to enter a coalition only as a single unit, the premier called on Gantz to join a government that includes those parties, pressuring him to drop his demand for a “secular” unity government with Likud.
At a faction meeting Thursday afternoon, Gantz responded to the proposal: “The nation went to the ballots and made a clear choice — the nation chose unity. Blue and White won the elections, Blue and White is the biggest party. I intend to form a broad unity government headed by me, which would reflect the people’s choice and our basic promises to the public and our priorities.”
Read more here.