"I will leave office on the agreed date, there will be no shticks and tricks. Millions of Israelis are waiting for us."

Imploring Benny Gantz's Blue and White to join the Likud in a national unity government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Saturday night to rotate as prime minister and to leave the role at the agreed transition date without "any shticks or tricks." Netanyahu claimed in an interview on Channel 12 that the Likud and Blue and White had completed negotiations for what a national unity government would look like and under which he would serve first as prime minister and would then be replaced by Gantz.

  

"I will leave office on the agreed date," Netanyahu said in a message to Gantz. "There will be no shticks and tricks. Millions of Israelis are waiting for us."

Gantz denied that a deal had been reached, saying: "Those who want unity do not work with ultimatums and harmful leaks and certainly do not try to hurt our democracy and citizens by paralyzing the Knesset." 

Netanyahu said the deal was waiting to be signed, but a move to replace Yuli Edelstein as Knesset would prevent the agreement. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on Sunday that Edelstein must enable the formation of committees and a vote for who should be Knesset speaker when the Knesset reconvenes on Monday.

According to details of the proposed deal, Likud would start out with the posts of prime minister, finance minister and Knesset speaker and Blue and White would start with a deputy prime minister, defense minister and foreign minister and then switch after a year and a half. The Justice portfolio would be filled in agreement by an outsider or a minister and deputy from each party. Read more at JPost