Netanyahu offers Lapid, Gantz to join him in emergency unity government

By Jeremy Sharon Today, 9:07 pm

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposes that opposition parties Yesh Atid and National Unity enter an emergency government following Hamas’s devastating surprise attack Saturday morning.

Netanyahu makes the offer during a meeting with Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid and National Unity party leader Benny Gantz held earlier today, saying such a government would be the same in format as the Levi Eshkol government then-opposition leader Menachem Begin joined before the Six Day War in 1967.

Gantz says he is considering entering such a government for the duration of the war but insists that government would “deal with security challenges alone” and in a manner that would allow “substantive partnership and influence over decision-making in relevant forums” for his party.

The National Unity party leader tells Netanyahu that regardless, the current government will receive full backing “for any responsible and determined security action.”

Lapid said earlier this evening that he would join “a reduced, professional, emergency government” and says it would be impossible to manage a war with “the extreme and dysfunctional composition of the current cabinet,” essentially calling on the prime minister to remove the far-right Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit parties from the government in order for him to bring his Yesh Atid party into the coalition.

October 7, 2023 | 8 Comments »

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  1. Lieberman: “I will join a national emergency government without any conditions.”

    “If the prime minister, the defense minister and the [Israel Defense Forces] chief of staff stand in front of the cameras and inform the people of Israel that the government has decided to eliminate the terrorist organization Hamas and all the terrorist leaders and will not settle for anything less than that, I will join a national emergency government without any conditions,” he tweeted.

    “I understand that we have other challenges in the north against Hezbollah, hostages inside the Gaza Strip, the international community and many other challenges. We will know how to deal with everything at the same time. But the order of priorities must be clear: first of all, the elimination of Hamas and the leaders of Hamas,” he added.

  2. Bannon, Trump and Daniel Pipes on this issue are now a diversion. Their analysis is shallow. Israel needs to break decisively from all of this and do qualitatively different things.

    The problem is Antisemitism which appears continuously in innumerable forms in all ages.

    Islam is just one of these forms.

    The form most pertinent at this moment in time is Banderism. These barbarians were certainly complicit ALONG WITH IMPERIALISM in creating the greatest ever evil “Jewish Bolshevism” which formed the ideological backbone to the massive Pogroms 1918 to 1919 in Ukraine leading directly into the Holocaust.

    This person Michael S his political using of the poor Jews must be totally exposed. As I explained it lies at the heart of this modern Antisemitism.

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  4. @Sebastien
    Scalise calls for Biden to be held accountable for Hamas attack

    Trump also stated this on TruthSocial:

    “These Hamas attacks are a disgrace and Israel has every right to defend itself with overwhelming force,” Trump said in a statement released by his campaign. “Sadly, American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks, which many reports are saying came from the Biden Administration. We brought so much peace to the Middle East through the Abraham Accords, only to see Biden whittle it away at a far more rapid pace than anyone thought possible. Here we go again.”

    Many Reps have joined him in stating as much.

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  5. @EvRe1

    It is now clear that the Biden junta is partly responsible for this attack on Israel. Steve Scalise, a representative in the US House of Representatives said as much publicly.

    This is important. Please provide citation.

  6. Sebastien
    Right!
    Netanyahu gains nothing having them

    They have to support anyway such is feeling in the country

    They must level this place and the Arabs beg to move elsewhere

    Rid Jewish homeland of Antisemitism

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  7. Mistake. They would try to tie the hands of the IDF as they have done in the past. Otzma Yehudir/Religious Zionism got 14 mandates! More than Ganz at 10. And Ben-Gvir has heen right about everything. This might not have happened if they”d listened to him.

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  8. Interesting that Netanyahu offers his political rivals a seat at the table. Gantz accepts and understands it’s an offer with limits that are necessary for governing.

    Lapid also said he would accept on a limited basis, as otherwise their political differences would make governing impossible.

    I wonder if Netanyahu is trying to create as much unity as possible in the government, which he hopes will result in as much unity of purpose as possible in the IDF.

    I am hopeful that by stating this is a “war,” and not a “military operation,” Netanyahu wants to have all military options available to defeat the enemy.

    It is now clear that the Biden junta is partly responsible for this attack on Israel. Steve Scalise, a representative in the US House of Representatives said as much publicly.

    Biden constantly pushed and pressured Israel through Netanyahu to make concessions to the Palestinians during his whole administration, and at the same time Biden empowered Iran, giving them $6 billion in fungible assets.

    I hope and pray that this war achieves complete defeat for Hamas and the PLO.

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