In a dramatic turn of events, the Blue and White Party that served as the alternative to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the March 2 election, broke up on Thursday after party head Benny Gantz decided to enter Netanyahu’s government.
The three parties that made up Blue and White – Gantz’s Hosen L’Israel, Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid and Moshe Ya’alon’s Telem – all went in different directions. Hosen L’Israel is joining the government, Lapid will head the opposition and Telem will split up, with Ya’alon on the outside and divided.
Yesh Atid and Telem formally asked the Knesset to split off from Hosen L’Israel and keep the name Blue and White for the two parties together. Yesh Atid MKs wished their former colleagues good luck as they left the party’s whatsapp group.
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Gantz reached out to Lapid in a speech after getting elected Knesset speaker, in an effort to prevent the split.
“It has been my intention, and it is still my intention, to do everything possible to keep us together, and I urge all of my potential political partners to act in the same spirit,” he said. “This is not the time for in-fighting and mud-slinging. This is not the time for controversy and divisions. This is the time for responsible, committed, patriotic leadership.”
But Lapid and Ya’alon responded by fiercely attacking him in speeches in Tel Aviv.
Read more: jpost
