The leaders of several opposition parties on Sunday rejected Blue and White-National Unity chief Benny Gantz’s call to form a “government of hostage redemption” and join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition to secure a hostage deal and set election dates, calling the move “pitiful” and saying that there was “no reason” to join the government.

In a Saturday evening press conference, Gantz had called on Netanyahu, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, and Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman to form a unity government with a six-month mandate, urging his fellow opposition party leaders to join the coalition on a temporary basis to focus on securing the release of hostages held in Gaza and advancing legislation to address ultra-Orthodox enlistment in the military.

The former defense minister also urged Netanyahu to ditch Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who have threatened to bring down the government if he agrees to a ceasefire deal to return the hostages.

As of Sunday evening, Netanyahu had not responded to Gantz’s plea.

For his part, Liberman called it “a pitiful show,” telling Channel 12 that, watching Gantz, he “saw a tired, scared, panicked person there who is begging for his life and taking a ride on the most sensitive issues. The Likud [party led by Netanyahu] does not pay attention to him.”

Liberman told Israel Radio that Gantz was “crawling into the coalition.”

After Gantz said on Saturday night that he hadn’t managed to get hold of Liberman and Lapid before his press conference, Liberman dismissed Gantz’s effort to contact him “an hour before a press conference” as a “cynical attempt” to claim he had tried to speak his opposition colleagues, and indictated that he had simply chosen not to answer the........

© The Times of Israel