Benny Gantz, Netanyahu readying compromises on unity

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz is prepared to join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in making compromises ahead of the December 11 deadline to form a government and prevent a third election in under a year, sources close to Gantz said on Sunday.

Netanyahu already compromised by dropping his insistence on serving as prime minister the first two years in a unity government to one year, and then relaying to Gantz that he would settle for “less than six months without tricks and shticks.”

Sources close to Gantz said he was willing to accept the offer and stand up to Blue and White’s second and third candidates, MKs Yair Lapid and Moshe Ya’alon, who warned him that it is a trap. The sources said Gantz will tell them that they can sit out of the government while Netanyahu is prime minister and then join for his two years at the helm.

“This can work without breaking up Blue and White,” a source close to Gantz said.

The head of the Likud’s negotiating team, Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, told reporters outside Sunday’s cabinet meeting that “the responsibility lies with Gantz, who needs to stop working for Lapid and being afraid of him.”

MORE: https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Likud-Blue-and-White-express-pessimism-after-meeting-609541

Benny Gantz, Netanyahu readying compromises on unity