Blue and White (Kahol Lavan) leader Benny Gantz is “inclined to form a unity government with Benjamin Netanyahu serving as a prime minister first in a rotation”, reported Haaretz.

The Israeli newspaper cited “political sources”, despite Gantz’s “suspicions” of the Likud leader, “and even at the price of breaking up [with Blue and White]”.

Despite Gantz’s favorable view of a broad unity government, one of Blue and White’s senior figures, former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, apparently “refuses to join a unity government led by Netanyahu, even if an agreement on setting up such a cabinet is reached with Likud”.

Meanwhile, Haaretz added, another senior Blue and White representative, former military chief Gabi Ashkenazi, has told Gantz that he would not join a minority government backed by the Joint List.

Blue and White number two Yair Lapid, for his part, “is still agonizing over whether to join a government led by Netanyahu or remain in the opposition, the sources said”.

According to reports, Gantz believes that “even if Ya’alon and Lapid refused to enter the government, some members of Ya’alon’s Telem faction and Lapid’s Yesh Atid would take part.”

While, officially, there has been no progress in negotiations between Likud and Blue and White, Haaretz noted that “unlike the disagreement the two parties had after the September election, this time both sides agree that Netanyahu would be the first to serve as prime minister”.

However, the sides “disagree on the time he would be in office”, with Netanyahu demanding two years before Gantz replaces him, while Blue and White “insists on a much shorter-term”.

(Middle East Monitor, PC, Social Media)