Ayelet Shaked: ‘Of course we’d come’ to meet Gantz about forming government

However, the right-wing leader says Blue and White should negotiate with the whole right-religious bloc and not each party alone.

By World Israel News Staff 

On Tuesday, New Right leader MK Ayelet Shaked said that her party would accept an invitation to meet with Blue and White, headed by MK Benny Gantz, on the possibility of forming a new governing coalition on the heels of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement on Monday that he had failed.

“In response to many questions which I have received: if we are invited to a meeting with Gantz, of course we would come,” tweeted Shaked.

“But we would make clear to Gantz,” she added, “that it’s a shame to waste time and would be worthwhile to start conducting negotiations with representatives of the bloc.”

Shaked was referring to the 55 MKs in the 120-seat Knesset who support Netanyahu’s leadership.

It has been a bone of contention between Blue and White and the Likud.

As Netanyahu conducted talks with Blue and White on forming a new government over the past month, he insisted that he represented all 55 MKs who backed him and not just the 32 seats won by the Likud in the September 17 election.

The other smaller factions include New Right, Jewish Home/National Union, United Torah Judaism, and Shas. Members of these parties are said to have even signed pledges of allegiance to the incumbent premier.

Blue and Right has rejected this approach, arguing that it should be its strength of 33 seats negotiating across a similarly-sized Likud and not in a position of weakness as much smaller than the entire opposing bloc.

“The New Right will not conduct independent negotiations,” Shaked insisted on Tuesday.