Todd Bishop
Israel held a general election on September 17, but Prime Minister Netanyahu and the main rival Ganz’s camp failed to obtain more than half of the seats, and it is expected that a coalition government will be formed. Netanyahu invited Ganz to form a government, but he was rejected by the other party.
Benjamin Netanyahu admitted on the 19th that he had no chance to form a right-wing government and called on Benny Gantz to join the government. He mentioned that the former left-wing Prime Minister Shimon Peres had alternated with the conservative former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir from 1984 to 1988, hinting that he would take turns with Ganz.
Ganz responded on the same day that the Israelis wanted to form a coalition government, but refused to join the government led by Netanyahu. He said that the Blue and White has won 33 seats, but Netanyahu did not want to win enough seats, emphasizing that the government must be led by itself.
Netanyahu expressed surprise and disappointment at Gantz’s response and said that the invitation is still valid.
As of 2:56 pm local time on the 19th, the official completion of the calculation of 68.6% of the votes. The blue and white party led by Ganz led the Likud group in Netanyahu with a slight advantage of 0.77%.
Israel’s Haaretz speculated that the Blue and White Party would win 33 of the 120 seats in the National Assembly and become the largest party. The Likud Group is expected to have 31 seats, and the Joint List of Arab and Left Jewish parties has 13 seats.
