Outmaneuvering Netanyahu, Benny Gantz heads towards Israel premiership – Washington Examiner, Washingtonexaminer.com

          

Israel Blue and White coalition leader, Benny Gantz, has a growing opportunity. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a growing problem.

          

Following Tuesday’s election, neither the centrist Blue and White party nor Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party command a parliamentary majority in the Knesset. Blue and White has 33 seats and Likud, 31. A parliamentary majority requires 61 seats. But while Netanyahu is calling on Gantz to join a unity government with Likud’s Ultra-Orthodox allies, Gantz is holding firm. Making matters worse for Netanyahu, Avigdor Lieberman – the head of a secular right-wing party whose eight seats offer a prospective majority – says any unity government must exclude the Ultra-Orthodox parties.

          

This chaos wasquite predictable, but it’s shocking to see the degree to which Netanyahu is being outmaneuvered.

          

After all, by sticking firm to his demand that any new government be headed by him and include the Ultra-Orthodox parties as well as Blue and White, Netanyahu is effectively demanding that Gantz surrender. Gantz, a former Israeli paratrooper and uniform chief of Israel’s military, isn’t buying it. Neither is Lieberman, whose central demand for supporting any new government is that it exclude the Ultra-Orthodox parties.

          

Still, Netanyahu seems to believe that holding onto the reins of power is the best way to avoidindictment anda possible prison term on corruption charges.

          

Netanyahu could still prevail, were he somehow to woo Lieberman to join his coalition. This is probably the most unlikely option, considering the above issues, but in Israeli politics anything is possible.

          

Alternatively, Netanyahu might agree to step down and be replaced by another compromise Likud leader who can earn broader support. That leader will then abandon the Ultra-Orthodox parties in favor of a broad-tent coalition with Gantz.

          

The third option is that Lieberman recommends to Israeli President Rivlin that Gantz should be given approval to form a coalition with Lieberman’s support.

          

But we’ll just have to wait and see. If no coalition can be formed, another election will almost certainly follow next year.