Gantz puts his mandate back. Israel to the third election in a year

Foreign

Israel, task for Gantz: "Now a government of national reconciliation"

of VINCENZO NIGRO

Gantz and Netanyahu, who do not have the numbers to form a government with their respective allies, did not find the agreement for a coalition of broad agreements. This was the hypothesis advocated by Rivlin, to avoid the third consecutive election. But Netanyahu, who may soon be indicted for several corruption cases, insisted that he be the first to go in an alternation hypothesized with Gantz as prime minister. Gantz, whose "Blue and White" party won more seats than Netanyahu's Likud, did not want to give him the advantage of facing prime ministerial trials, agreeing to be second in the relay. For his part, Netanyahu, who had been asked to renounce his "block" of allies to go into government with Gantz, did not accept the idea of ​​separating himself from the other rights. In a speech in the early afternoon of Tuesday, the current "king-maker" of coalition talks Avigdor Lieberman he had already hinted that Gantz would remit the mandate with nothing. Netanyahu's former right-hand man, now his worst thorn in the side, has ruled out supporting a Gantz government that relies on the external support of Arab parties. "I am a fifth column," he said, using the expression with which he often accuses Israel's Arabs of disloyalty.

Similarly, however, Lieberman is determined not to retrace his steps and support a government of the right. Last April, after the first election, he refused to join a coalition that left too much room for maneuver for the ultra-Orthodox parties, historic allies of Netanyahu. It was a cold shower for Bibi, who had warmly declared a "space victory" for the center-right, taking Lieberman's support for granted. It was the beginning of a transition phase that seems to have no end.

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