Pressure on Netanyahu to reserve a spot for Gantz's MK
Following the departure of Yael Ron Ben-Moshe, the Blue and White chairman is left with only three MKs. However, it has now emerged that mayors are working to recruit Pnina Tamano-Shata to the Likud.
An unexpected transition on the way? After Yael Ron Ben-Moshe announced on Tuesday that she is leaving Blue and White, Benny Gantz, who after October 7th was polling at 40 mandates and is now failing to pass the electoral threshold, is left with only three MKs.
Remaining with Gantz now are only Alon Schuster, Michael Biton, and Pnina Tamano-Shata. Schuster is examining his future political path. In a post he published about two weeks ago, Schuster wrote: "In the coming weeks, until the deadline for submitting party lists for the elections on September 7, Gantz will make a final attempt to create a reasonable political structure that will help advance two goals. I hope he succeeds in this."
"Removing Netanyahu from Balfour"
"In any case, this coming autumn, Israel will face a critical decision: how to advance both stable changes in Israel's policy and the end of Netanyahu's tenure. If this can be achieved in one step, all the better. Of course, if it does not succeed, my opinion is that there is a situation where removing Netanyahu from Balfour should be the first move, which would allow politically, with greater ease, a second move of establishing a stable government that would rely on a significant majority in the Knesset."
Schuster is mainly concerned about the question of whether there will be representation for the agricultural movement in the next Knesset.
However, the more interesting story is happening in the right-wing bloc. It has come to the attention that a number of Likud mayors have been briefing recently that they are working to promote the reservation of MK Pnina Tamano-Shata on the Likud list. It should be emphasized that Tamano-Shata denies the matter and insists that she is staying with Gantz.
The information came from conversations with the mayors themselves, and not from Tamano-Shata, so at this stage it is unclear whether this is a coordinated and real move or an initiative by municipal officials seeking to promote the move. Thus, while Blue and White continues to shrink, the battle for the "day after" begins: some of its people are looking for new frameworks, and other parties are already identifying the opportunity to add well-known figures from the party to their ranks.
"We are building a strong list that will work for the establishment of a broad Zionist government," Blue and White stated. Their response does not come in a vacuum; in recent days, there has been an attempt there to recruit Ayelet Shaked, who for her part reiterates the principle that she will not join any side without a major unification of all players in the third bloc.
