Before Ra'am Chairman Mansour Abbas was set to address the nation in a televised speech, Blue & White Chairman Benny Gantz called on the Arab lawmaker not to support a government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"Israeli Arabs have been harmed in recent years by a series of actions led by Netanyahu. This has not changed, and it will not change." Gantz said. "Now that he needs you, he will tell you stories and promise everything — he is lying. All he wants is one vote, to overthrow the [current] government [in which Blue & White has an equal voting right as Netanyahu's Likud party], and then when he no longer needs you, all promises will go into the garbage bin of history."