Blue and White stumbles as Israeli race nears finish
In an interview with Al-Monitor a week before the election, Blue and White Chairman Benny Gantz admits he is disturbed by shifting trends in the polls and rejects any chance of partnering with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz spent the morning of Feb. 24 skipping from one interview to the next, part of a media blitz in the last week of his 2020 election campaign. Most of the interviews took place in his election headquarters in Tel Aviv, in a well-equipped studio mockup of the prime minister’s office. The warmly lit set was decorated with an Israeli flag, shelves of neatly arranged books and a desk covered with family photos.
But now, less than a week away from the March 2 election, Gantz’ path to prime minister seems particularly unlikely. Throughout the election campaign, the Blue and White party has kept a steady lead over the Likud and maintained its position as the biggest party. But polls released early this week by the two major television networks seemed to show a very different trend. The Likud was now ahead, with Blue and White losing anywhere from two to four seats.
The brakes began to squeal Feb. 20, when it was reported that the police will investigate the Fifth Dimension, a company Gantz headed that allegedly won a tender by improper means. Even though Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit stressed that Gantz was not implicated in this affair, the Likud has managed to attach the scent of scandal and corruption to the Blue and White Party and its leader. Having centered its own campaign on Netanyahu’s corruption scandals, Blue and White suddenly found itself on the defensive. At the same time, Netanyahu projected the message that the Blue and White party was planning to form a coalition with the Joint List, even though Gantz repeatedly denied it. The Jewish Israeli mainstream, including the political center, would have a hard time accepting such a partnership.
Blue and White found itself losing voters, not only to the right but also to the leftist Labor-Gesher-Meretz list as some voters were put off by the way Gantz and the other Blue and White seniors dismissed any cooperation with the Joint List. Turning such a trend around one week before the election is daunting task indeed, even if there is some consolation in the fact that Netanyahu does not yet have 61 seats. Since Gantz doesn’t have 61 seats either, the possibility of a fourth round of elections is not out of the question.
