Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s body language said it all. His feelings were evident during Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s speech to mark the opening of the Knesset’s winter session last Monday [Oct. 4].

During his speech, Bennett revealed that the Mossad had been operating in foreign countries to collect information about navigator Ron Arad, who was captured and disappeared in Lebanon 35 years ago. Even with his mask on, the defense minister looked resentful and jumpy. He was sitting beside Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Justice Minister Gideon Saar, both of who looked relaxed and friendly, whenever they interacted. Anyone could see that of the people sitting there, Gantz was the outsider.

In this case, however, the defense minister's glares represented much more than the everyday tension between the two men. It reflected something that had happened just moments before Bennett took the podium. That was the first time Bennett informed the defense minister that he planned to go public about the operation, which Gantz had originally approved. In contrast, Bennett informed Lapid of his intentions well before his speech to the Knesset.

Gantz considered the move a mistake, but there was nothing he could do at that moment to stop Bennett. It was obvious to him that Bennett’s considerations were political, an attempt to improve his dismal rankings in the polls. What made matters worse was that the “bold” operation, as Bennett described it, had no concrete results, nor did it offer any clues to the mystery surrounding Ron Arad’s fate.