On Friday afternoon, Kachol Lavan leader Benny Gantz made headlines (somehow even beating out coronavirus news for a little while) when he accepted the position of Speaker of the Knesset, backed by Netanyahu and the right-wing bloc. Hours later, news broke that his conglomerate party was fracturing, initiated by fellow MKs Yair Lapid and Moshe Ya'alon, who cited their frustrations with Gantz's sudden flip to Netanyahu's side. But what actually happened? Who "flipped" on who? What does this mean for the new Knesset?
Kachol Lavan, or Blue and White in English, was a party formed in February 2019 by joining three former parties: Hosen L'Yisrael (Israel Resilience) led by Lt. Benny Gantz, Yesh Atid led by Yair Lapid, and Telem led by Moshe Ya'alon. These three parties ran together on a joint ticket in April 2019, September 2019, and March 2019 with the goal of removing Netanyahu from office as Prime Minister and leading a center-left government for Israel.
Gantz and Kachol Lavan were actually tasked with forming a government in the past, but failed to do so as a result of the small number of center- and left-wing seats elected to Knesset. This, as well as Likud's many failures to form a coalition, have led Israel through three elections in the last year, a disaster for Israel's political, social, and economic realms. In a recent tweet, Gantz wrote one brief statement: "Israel before everything."
Gantz's statement could explain his apparent side-flipping with this simple phrase: by joining Netanyahu, he creates a functioning coalition for Israel which would allow the country to resume its necessary activity in the troubling time of COVID-19.
However, this doesn't completely explain Kachol Lavan's split, since Gantz himself was not the one to leave the party. Lapid and Ya'alon both cited their desire not to betray their voters, who voted for their party in hopes of taking down Bibi, not working with him. So, taking their sections of the party with them, Ya'alon and Lapid split from their perceived traitor and formed an alliance with their two parties separate from Gantz.
So what now?
Now, the former Kachol Lavan party has split into two factions: Kachol Lavan and Yesh Atid-Telem. The new Kachol Lavan will consist of the 15 members of Gantz's Israel Resilience party as well as two former Telem members, who are now calling themselves Derech Eretz. The Yesh Atid-Telem faction will retain the 13 members of Lapid's Yesh Atid as well as the remaining 3 members of Telem for a total of 16 seats in the opposition. Another little-known fact is that MKs Pnina Tamano-Shata and Gadeer Mreeh swapped parties, with the former landing in Israel Resilience and the latter in Yesh Atid.
In addition, Labor party leader Amir Peretz and Labor MK Itzik Shmuli have announced that they, too, will be joining Netanyahu's coalition, much to the dismay of fellow party and list members in Labor-Gesher-Meretz.
No one knows exactly what is coming, but it's possible that Israel could see a new government formed in the next few days! #15monthsinthemaking