Benny Gantz has resigned from Israel’s emergency government and called for elections, criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his handling of the war against Hamas.
The departure of Gantz, a Netanyahu rival and former general, would not cause the ruling coalition to collapse, but it deprives the government of a moderate voice during the war that began after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, leaving Netanyahu more reliant on his right-wing coalition partners. The prime minister and his allies control 64 out of the 120 seats in parliament.
Following Gantz’s resignation, far-right party leader Itamar Ben Gvir, who holds six seats in Netanyahu’s coalition, posted a letter on X demanding to be added to the war Cabinet in Gantz’s place.
Photo: Reuters
“The time has come to make brave decisions, achieve real deterrence and bring security to the residents of Israel,” Ben Gvir wrote.
Gantz, one in a three-person war Cabinet that included Netanyahu, said in a televised news conference that the prime minister was preventing Israel from achieving “true victory” in its war against Hamas, saying that “fateful, strategic decisions are met with hesitancy and procrastination due to political considerations.”
He called for an election in the fall, as Israel marks the first anniversary of the attacks, “that will lead to a true unity government.”
In a post on X, Netanyahu wrote that “Israel is in an existential war on multiple fronts.”
“Benny, this is not the time to abandon the campaign — this is the time to join forces,” he wrote.
Gantz postponed his announcement by a day, after the Israeli military freed four hostages in an operation in central Gaza. More than 270 Palestinians were killed in the operation, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
In his speech, Gantz said that the military campaign would last years and that he could not make “empty promises” guaranteeing an easy and quick victory.
He said that a true victory puts “bringing home the hostage above political survival, combines military success with political and civil initiative,” and should involve replacing Hamas and establishing a regional alliance against Iran led by the US and the entire Western world.
Gantz said he supports the ceasefire deal approved by the war Cabinet and “whose principles were presented by US President Joe Biden.
“I demand the Prime Minister to gather the necessary courage to stand behind it and do everything to promote it,” he said and promised to back such plan as an opposition leader.
Three weeks ago Gantz announced that he would leave the war Cabinet by June 8 unless Netanyahu met a long list of demands which were not met.
Gantz had sought to bring in a coalition of Arabs, Palestinians, Americans and Europeans to manage civilian affairs in the coastal strip and return Israelis who have been evacuated from the north because of ongoing battles with Lebanon’s Hezbollah to their homes by September.
He said Netanyahu needs to promote relations with Saudi Arabia and come up with an elusive plan for conscripting religious men.
Gantz, a former defense minister and former chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, has been ahead of Netanyahu as a future prime minister in most polls held since the beginning of the war in October.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS