New Right leader Ayelet Shaked called on Blue and White leader Benny Gantz and the other leaders of the left-wing parties to join a national unity government led by Binyamin Netanyahu.
“The people chose the right but not enough to form a government and so we will all compromise,” Shaked said in a statement at her front door in northern Tel Aviv.
According to her, the right-wing parties have formed a joint negotiating team that will work to establish a unity government “on the basis of the principles of a Jewish and democratic state”. Shaked emphasized: “I urge Benny Gantz to put the boycotts aside and come to talk with Netanyahu.”
Earlier in the day, 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.
Gantz and other Blue and White leaders dismissed the offer, insisting that the next coalition must have Gantz as prime minister, not Netanyahu, and be committed to liberal policies on religious issues.
The Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman blasts Netanyahu ‘deception’ in conditioning unity government on inclusion of religious parties.