With nine days to go before Israel's election, Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz has floated a new plan to break the country's political gridlock: let Benjamin Netanyahu serve in a senior capacity, just not as prime minister.
In an interview on 103fm with hosts Barak Seri and Eli Ochana, Gantz laid out what he called a creative workaround to the legal constraints that bar Netanyahu from serving as a minister while under indictment. "I'm proposing a solution that goes beyond this event," he said. "Bibi won't be prime minister, but he can do other things, we can solve this politically."
He recalled a conversation from their time together in the coronavirus unity government. "He asked me what an alternate prime minister is; I answered him: 'When we switch, what will you be?'"
Addressing the legal barriers that currently prevent Netanyahu from holding a ministerial portfolio, he listed a series of alternative positions that could be tailored for him. "He could be alternate prime minister, he could be chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Let him be a minister responsible for strategic affairs who is not a Knesset member. Can all of this be done legally? The answer is yes."
