State Camp party chairman and war cabinet member Benny Gantz is expected to give a statement to the press on Motzai Shabbat at 20:40. Prime Minister Netanyahu is expected to speak immediately after him.
This morning (Friday), journalist Amit Segal reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke with Gantz last night at the end of a war cabinet meeting. Netanyahu apparently tried to convince Gantz not to break up the emergency government, but the effort seems to have failed.
During the conversation, Netanyahu asked: "Why are you leaving? The existing disagreements between us are very narrow." Gantz replied: "We feel our influence is decreasing."
The original basis for Gantz's ultimatum to Netanyahu, which if not met would lead to his leaving the government, was based on three central principles: returning the hostages, collapsing the Hamas government including the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip and ensuring Israeli security control, the establishment of an American-European-Arab-Palestinian administration which would run the Strip's civil affairs, returning the residents of the north to their homes by September 1, advancing normalization with Saudi Arabia, and adopting an equal basis for service.
