In an unexpected turn of events and edge-of-your-seat drama, Blue&White leader MK Benny Gantz openly defied his cockpit partner Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid), and submitted his own name for the position of Knesset Speaker, to replace Amir Peretz who replaced Yuli Edelstein, who quit rather than fold to the illegal demands of the High Court.
In response, the Yesh Atid faction, which has been running the Blue&White party from behind the scenes, announced they will not be showing up for the Knesset vote to support Gantz.
Sources close to Gantz said that if Lapid doesn’t support him in the vote, the Blue&White party will break apart.
Lapid wants his candidate Meir Cohen to be appointed so he can quickly begin working on anti-Netanyahu legislation. His goal is to prevent Netanyahu from staying on as prime minister.
It appears that the Likud will likely vote for Gantz as Knesset Speaker, in which case, as Speaker he will not be able to be a government minister, but he would have the power to undermine Netanyahu if he wanted to.
But, it also means that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz managed to cobble together some formula for a unity or emergency government of some sort or another, enough that they are willing to trust one another to do this move.
The vote will be held at 5:30PM.
Update: Gantz was officially voted in and will hold the position for a few days until the unity government is officially formed.