Israel's Gantz presides over collapse of Blue and White
Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, the only real alternative to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, now collapses politically, taking down with him the whole center-left camp.
Will Defense Minister and Blue and White Chairman Benny Gantz decide to run in the upcoming March elections or will he step down? This thorny question has occupied the entire political system, and Gantz himself, in recent days.
The man who until seven months ago headed the second-largest party and represented the hopes of the Israeli center to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now finds himself in a desperate political and public conundrum as he watches his party disintegrate in front of his eyes.
Recent polls have shown that the Blue and White party under his leadership is getting dangerously close to the electoral threshold, with only five Knesset seats. Almost every day, Knesset members are quitting or being driven out by Gantz; others are rebelling publicly against all of Gantz’s decisions; and his former high-ranking partner, former Chief of Staff (Foreign Minister) Gabi Ashkenazi, is apparently on his way out. He might even announce his departure as early as tomorrow.
This state of affairs concerns not only Gantz’s personal fate but also constitutes a real tragedy for Israel’s center-left camp. For the duration of three election campaigns, the center-left believed that Netanyahu would be felled and then replaced by the center-left. But now, on the eve of the fourth election campaign, the center-left is fragmented and more at odds than ever.
