First Publication: Pressure on Gantz for a Triple Leadership with Simhi and Edelstein

Due to the ongoing stagnation in the polls and the fact that the new party of Benny Gantz and Dadi Simhi has not yet been launched, despite several early opportunities for its launch, sources close to Gantz are pressuring him to agree to a model of joint leadership if Yuli Edelstein joins the move.

According to the proposal, Gantz will continue to head the list and will be the senior minister on its behalf if it joins the government after the elections. However, a small forum of three will be established—Gantz, Simhi, and Edelstein—which will be the only body authorized to make significant decisions, conduct coalition negotiations, decide on leaving the government, and determine the faction's voting method in important votes in the Knesset.

As of now, Gantz refuses this and insists on having veto power and being the one who leads the important decisions in the party, apparently out of fear that Simhi and Edelstein might strive to enter a Netanyahu government if their party provides him with the 61 seats required to form a government, contrary to Gantz's commitments not to do so.

Sources in the party say that even if Gantz is right in principle, his situation in the polls does not allow him to insist on this issue, and he must share the leadership; otherwise, there is no chance that Blue and White will even pass the electoral threshold. Moreover, they say, Yuli Edelstein, who is supposed to be a central figure in the party's leadership, has not yet given a positive answer regarding his joining. However, if he is offered the third spot within a joint leadership where he, Gantz, and Simhi decide everything together, or by majority vote, it could be a significant catalyst for him to join.

Another concern expressed by sources in Blue and White is that even Simhi, who has already announced that he is running with Gantz, might receive a last-minute offer from Likud and join Netanyahu's party instead in exchange for a reserved spot.

So far, Gantz and Simhi have not officially announced the joint run and have not launched the party's campaign, although Simhi has already confirmed that he intends to do so. The reason for the delay in the announcement was the negotiations that were conducted until three weeks ago with Yoaz Hendel and the reservists' party. Hendel insisted on coming as a separate faction within the list so that he could conduct political negotiations himself after the elections without depending on the decisions of Gantz and Simhi. The two refused this demand, but the contacts continued.

When Hendel announced in an interview that he would not sit under any circumstances with any Haredi party, which contradicts the central message of Blue and White that they intend to stop the discourse of boycotts and force a broad unity government, Gantz and Simhi realized that Hendel had actually been conducting empty negotiations with them for weeks, while behind the scenes he had already closed a deal with Chili Tropper for a joint run.

In Blue and White, they accused Hendel of bad faith and cynical exploitation of the negotiations, as from the very first moment he did not intend to join them but only to delay their announcement of the joint run and the launch of the campaign in order to get ahead of them with the establishment of his party with Tropper.

The anger of Gantz's people was also directed at Tropper, who is the second knife he has stuck in Gantz's back. The first time was when he decided to leave Blue and White and contributed to the feeling of the party's disintegration. And the second time was when he joined Hendel for a political exercise while exploiting the negotiations they were conducting with him in good faith, just so he could delay their plans.

As of now, Gantz is also refusing the new proposal for joint leadership with Simhi and Edelstein, and sources in his headquarters fear that his insistence will lead to Edelstein not coming either, and Simhi also "escaping" in the end to the arms of Netanyahu, who, according to various estimates, would still like to see him on the Likud list.