Gantz promises to join Netanyahu coalition if opposition falls short of majority

Unless any opposition party was prepared to work with Netanyahu’s Likud party to form a rejigged coalition, the prime minister would remain reliant on Charedi and far-right parties to stay in power, as is currently the case.

Opponents of the current government have long claimed that Likud’s dependence on such parties has pulled Israeli policy significantly to the right, particularly on the issues of West Bank annexation, settler violence and the proposed conscription of Charedi yeshiva students.

In that context, Gantz told reporters: “I intend to do everything I can to prevent Netanyahu from reaching 61 [Knesset seats, the threshold required for a majority], but if the people decide that’s what happens, I will go to my friends in the opposition and tell them we must not repeat the mistake of the previous elections, and I will call on them to join me and isolate the extremists.”

Referring by name to the leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, one of those whose withdrawal from the current coalition would collapse the government, he added: “I will not allow [National Security Minister] Itamar Ben-Gvir to be the defence minister of our children.”

The attempt to unseat Netanyahu, though, would require virtually all the opposition parties to unite behind a single candidate, with ex-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and incumbent Opposition Leader Yair Lapid the frontrunners.

Gantz’s comments come after Ra’am, Israel’s largest Islamist party, announced it would cut ties with religious affiliates and open its Knesset slate to Jewish candidates for the first time.

The party is the political wing of the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel (IMI), the Northern Branch of which is proscribed due to alleged ties with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

The new selection policy, coupled with its disaffiliation from the IMI, is believed to be designed to improve its legitimacy in the eyes of the Israeli public and broaden its support base beyond Muslim voters. It will also open the possibility of Druze and Christian candidates, as well as Jews.

Meanwhile, several of the leaders of the 2023 anti-judicial reform protest movement formally joined the Democrats party under Yair Golan earlier this month.

Moshe Radman and Ami Dror, as well as Danny Elgarat, a prominent voice among hostage relatives after his brother Itzik was abducted by Hamas on October 7 and murdered in Gaza, were welcomed into the party by Golan at a Knesset event on January 6.

"Tonight, the most natural and necessary transition in the past three years is happening,” said the veteran leftist MK, a former IDF deputy chief of staff.

"The Democrats is the home for everyone who took to the streets, for anyone concerned about the fate of the country.”

He also hinted that the new cohort could compete for the party’s Knesset slate at the upcoming elections, due by October, adding: “Today, we are opening the doors of the party to new members. We have open primaries for everyone, with many excellent candidates.”