Senior officials close to Blue and White leader MK Benny Gantz on Monday afternoon said the chairman is set on forming a government before his mandate to do so expires Wednesday night - no matter what the price.
In an interview with Arutz Sheva, the officials said Gantz is willing to pay even an outrageous price, and the bloc is determined "not to repeat the mistake made by Tzipi Livni in 2008, when she missed the chance to become prime minister."
"Gantz looks like a pushover, but he's not. Our goal is first of all that Gantz should take the position of prime minister - at any price, even if that means being dependent on the Arabs' support," they said.
"After [Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu leaves the office, we'll bring in other parties and it'll become a Zionist government. But first of all we need to bring down Netanyahu's rule."
The officials also said that the hopes that Netanyahu and those close to him that Yisrael Beytenu Chairman MK Avigdor Liberman will allow them to form a right-wing government at the last minute are false hopes. "Liberman is putting Netanyahu to sleep," they explained.
Neither Gantz nor Liberman is afraid of the price of forming a government supported by the Arabs: "After Netanyahu is out of office and the government is more Zionist, no one will remember that Liberman and Gantz received support from the Arabs."
Gantz does not see a third round of elections as an option, they said, emphasizing that he "doesn't want additional elections."
