by Mati Tuchfeld
Theoretically, Benny Gantz has the votes for a government. In practice, it won't happen, even though the media and some enthusiastic Twitter users would be willing to see him sit with Hezbollah if it meant ousting Netanyahu.
Benny Gantz doesn't need the bills his faction presented on Monday to make Benjamin Netanyahu ineligible to serve as prime minister because of his legal situation. After receiving the mandate from President Rivlin, all Gantz needs to do is form a government. This would push Netanyahu out of office and see him replaced by Gantz. Theoretically, it could happen by tomorrow morning. Nothing prevents him from striking a deal with members of the left-wing bloc, who number 61 MKs now that Orly Levy-Abekasis has dropped out, to establish a coalition.
But Gantz knows he doesn't really have a government, and not only because Blue and White MKs Zvi Hauser and Yoaz Hendel aren't with him -- meaning he has lost his majority -- but also because most of the public isn't with him. While a number of media outlets and some enthusiastic tweeters would be prepared to see him form a government even with Hassan Nasrallah if it meant that Netanyahu was out, the dismay everyone else feels at the sight of three former IDF chiefs courting the Joint Arab List, most of whom support terrorists and reject Israel as a state of the Jewish people, cannot be described.
It seems that Gantz knows that joining forces with the Joint Arab List would be unforgiveable and would see him kicked out of politics faster than he entered it. But the damage has already been done. Now his is desperate and will apparently do anything to avoid returning the mandate after he fails again.
This is why he is spearheading the bills that are aimed against Netanyahu. But they, too, are legally problematic and it's not clear whether they could be applied retroactively even if they were to pass. So he wants to oust Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, as well, even though the law appears to be on Edelstein's side, hoping it will help him put off trying to form a government.
All this is unfolding alongside super-secret negotiations that have been underway since Sunday to form a unity government with the Likud. They are secret to avoid them being thwarted despite efforts by Gantz and his cohort to blow them up. They have a right to use leverage against Netanyahu, just like the other side can apply leverage, but a decision will soon have to be made. The Joint Arab List won't like to hear that the person they recommended to Rivlin with the purpose of ousting Netanyahu is actually working with him, and Gantz will have to decide which path to take.
Mati Tuchfeld
Source: https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/no-government-and-gantz-knows-it/
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