Gantz agrees to Liberman’s conditions for joining a center-left coalition

Liberman’s conditions include Sabbath public transportation, a haredi conscription bill, and steps to decrease the authority of the Chief Rabbinate.

By JNS

Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz on Sunday agreed to Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Liberman’s coalition demands, tweeting a Facebook post by Liberman showing his party’s preconditions for joining a Gantz-led government and writing, “Agreed, we must move forward.”

Liberman’s conditions include the delegation of the operation of public transportation and businesses on Shabbat to local authorities; a haredi conscription bill; allowing civil marriage in Israel; allowing local rabbis to oversee conversions; and setting pensions equal to at least 70 percent of the current minimum wage.

Separately on Sunday, the Knesset increased Gantz’s security detail after various death threats against him since Israel’s election last week were deemed credible, the AP reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party won more votes than Blue and White, but still does not have a 61-seat majority required to form a government.

According to Gantz, a man tried to assault him on Saturday evening as he arrived at a speaking engagement. The Blue and White leader also claims that Netanyahu supporters have been threatening him online, citing posts calling for him to be murdered just like former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated by a Jewish ultra-nationalist in 1995.