Gilad Erdan, chairman of the Unity Party said Thursday morning that he is holding talks with Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz over a possible merger between the parties ahead of Israel’s upcoming election.
“We are in talks with Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party,” Erdan said in an interview with 103FM.
Erdan said that if several parties join together and the alliance passes the electoral threshold, voters will begin to consider more seriously what such a move could offer.
“Once several parties join together and the connection between them passes the electoral threshold, people will start thinking deeply about what this gives us,” Erdan said.
“Do we want to continue as we have until now, where it is either Netanyahu and then we get Aryeh Deri and Yitzhak Goldknopf controlling things, or Gadi Eisenkot and then we perhaps get Yair Golan the extremist or Mansour Abbas controlling the government?”
'I have no ego on the matter' of political partnerships, Erdan said
“I did not establish a party and leave 30 years in Likud to deal with personal matters,” Erdan said. “I want to fix the things Likud is not doing well. This is the prime minister’s responsibility, because he is leading it. He truly is not trying to extend a genuine hand to the other side.”
Erdan said he is open to additional political partnerships, including with Ofer Winter, Yoaz Hendel, and Hili Tropper.
“I have no ego about this matter,” Erdan said. “I preferred not my political security, but rather to leave and try to convince the public to think deeply about what is best for them. Anyone who is willing to unite with us, we will consider it, as long as we reach policy lines. I am a man of the right, I am not willing to support a government that advances things that contradict my beliefs.”
Erdan concluded by saying: “I hope this will be an election campaign that will bring a real message, and not just looking for victories one over another. Our enemies are Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, not the other political side.”
Gantz confirmed in an interview on Walla’s election podcast with Yehuda Schlesinger that he met with Erdan the previous day for a lengthy conversation, and said he remains open to additional partnerships ahead of the election.
“We sat for a long and serious conversation, we learned about each other, and there will be another meeting,” Gantz said. “There are no agreements at the moment, but we are talking about similar things.”
“I call on everyone to join the bloc of the people of Israel. Ofer Winter leans more toward the right, but there are good people around him. My door is open to anyone who promotes unity, but Feiglin, for example, is not realistic in my view.”
Gantz pushed back against calls for him to withdraw from the upcoming election, criticized his former political partners Gadi Eisenkot and Hili Tropper, and warned against another narrow coalition government
“It is not pleasant to see a ‘struggling garden,’ let’s look reality in the eyes,” Gantz said at the start of the interview, acknowledging his party’s weaker position in recent polls. However, he rejected calls for him to step aside and said he should lead any alliance formed before the deadline for submitting party lists.
“The demand that I step down in order not to ‘waste votes’ for the camp is not legitimate,” Gantz said. “No one should sign me onto a camp, I belong to the people of Israel. Nothing will move me from first place. I need to lead this path because I initiated the idea of the third bloc and I have the experience. I will not step down.”
'We will establish a second change government,' Gantz said
Gantz also criticized calls to form another narrow coalition without the traditional right, arguing that both a narrow “change” government and a fully right-wing government had failed.
“What is becoming clear as a mistake is that a narrow government, even if it is made up of good people, tears apart,” he said. “Bennett and Lapid were unable to maintain it, the right moved right, the left moved left, and it was torn apart in the middle.”
“We received a reaction that put Ben-Gvir where he is today. Now we will establish a second change government and we will receive another reaction, except the argument will not be whether Ofer Winter is suitable, but rather Ben-Gvir will be defense minister.”
“We saw that a narrow change government did not work, and we saw that a ‘full right-wing’ government is truly dangerous. The only solution is the third bloc and a unity government.”