Sa’ar turned down Likud’s offer for first place in PM rotation • New Hope and Yesh Atid negotiating teams will meet to form a unity government.
Yamina leaders Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked spoke in favor of forming a unity government with Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid at Sunday’s Yamina faction meeting and received backing from the MKs in the faction, a party spokesman said.
Bennett will address the public on Sunday night at 8 p.m. and is expected to announce that he will join the so-called “Change Bloc” and serve as the prime minister for the first two years.
“Leadership means taking responsibility and not running from it,” Bennett told the faction. “We have red lines and we will not cross them. We will not give up territory or harm the Jewish identity of the State of Israel. It would be easy to remain stubborn and light fires like others. That is the way to make the country come apart.”
The Likud responded by accusing Bennett of misleading his voters and those of the Right as a whole and throwing out his values in order to become prime minister.
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The only Yamina MK of the seven who has vowed to rebel is Amichai Chikli, who did not attend the meeting. He said in radio interviews that he would vote against the government Bennett and Lapid would form and keep his seat in the Knesset, despite pressure from inside his party to resign.
Chikli wrote on Twitter on Saturday night that “black flags hover over” such a government, in a reference to the Black Flag protest movement that has tried to bring Netanyahu down.
New Hope leader Gideon Sa’ar turned down offers from Likud on Sunday morning to rotate as prime minister with Benjamin Netanyahu and then Bennett in a three-man rotation.
Source: JPOST
