Defense Minister Bnei Gantz met this week with Jordanian King Abdullah at his palace in Amman, but behind the scenes a political drama took place, related to the shaky relations between blue and white chairman and prime ministers, right-wing chairman Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid.
The defense minister, who sees himself as a future prime minister, wanted to arrange a tripartite meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah and Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas in an attempt to lower the flames ahead of Ramadan, which Israel hopes will not be a continuation of last week’s killing spree.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett revealed during his visit to Egypt, where he met with Egyptian President al-Sisi and the heir to the United Arab Emirates, Ben Zayed, about the Defense Minister’s intention, and in the days that followed the friction between the Prime Minister’s offices and Defense Minister was high. – and the Minister of Defense met only with the King of Jordan, as stated.
Tonight (Wednesday) it was reported in “News 12” that the person behind the move to prevent Gantz’s triple meeting with the Arab leaders is not Prime Minister Bennett, but rather Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, Gantz’s former political partner – and now his bitter rival -. According to the report, after Bennett told Lapid about it, the chairman of Yesh Atid harnessed the chairman to the right, and the meeting was foiled – even though Lapid is defined as the head of the party where the ‘blue and white’ in the government is.
Foreign Minister Lapid’s office said in response to the report in News 12: “This is simply not true. The foreign minister is cooperating with the defense minister and they are updating each other on all political-security activities.”