Blue and White leader Benny Gantz pushed back on former president Reuven Rivlin on Sunday evening, saying Rivlin never warned him against joining the COVID-era unity government with Benjamin Netanyahu. In a Facebook post, Gantz said that when Rivlin first described such a warning, he stayed silent out of respect, but now felt compelled to correct what he called a falsehood.
Gantz wrote that Rivlin did not merely fail to warn him, but actively advanced the government’s formation, including mediation talks between Gantz and Netanyahu. Some of those talks, he said, took place with other political figures present, and many were reported in the media at the time.
He said he understood then that the chance of securing the rotation agreement was low and that he did not trust Netanyahu, but still believed it was his duty to try to form a government during the pandemic. Gantz argued that the unity option was the right one in light of the election results and the coronavirus crisis, even though he did not become prime minister.
According to Gantz, Israel gained from the arrangement because the judiciary was preserved, many lives were saved during COVID, and Netanyahu later paid politically, losing his seat in the next election. He said he was not trying to save Netanyahu, but to protect Israel, and urged the next government to be broad and Zionist, saying national unity matters more than “history lessons” or “virtual reality.”
