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Benny Gantz has threatened to leave the government unless Israel commits to a new plan for the war with Hamas and its aftermath, in an ultimatum to increase political pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Gantz, an opposition figure and former general who joined Prime Minister Netanyahu's coalition after Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel, announced in a televised statement Saturday evening a six-point plan that includes a template for post-war governance of Gaza. They called on the government to reach an agreement by June 8.
Gantz said if his demands were not met, he would pull his centrist National Unity Party, which polls suggest will be the largest group in the new elections, from the government. Ta.
“The choice is in your hands,” Gantz told Prime Minister Netanyahu directly. “Ten years ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu would have done the right thing. Are you willing to do the right and patriotic thing today?”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office accused Gantz of “choosing to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister rather than to Hamas.”
In a statement, the prime minister's office said, “The terms set by Mr. Gantz are clearly meaningless, meaning the end of the war and the defeat of Israel.''
Mr. Gantz's ultimatum heightened months of tension within Netanyahu's government over its war response and left Israel unable to achieve its goal of annihilating Hamas and freeing the approximately 130 Israeli hostages it still holds in Gaza. is still a long way off. At the same time, it faces intense international criticism over the sharp increase in humanitarian damage caused by attacks on Palestinian enclaves.
The departure of the National Unity Party will not automatically collapse Prime Minister Netanyahu's five-party coalition government or trigger early elections. The prime minister and his far-right, ultra-religious allies will still control 64 seats in Israel's 120-seat parliament.
But it would put an end to cross-partisan cooperation after the Oct. 7 attacks. Prime Minister Netanyahu will also become increasingly beholden to the two far-right parties in the coalition led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
They called for Israel to take a more aggressive approach to the war and, once the war ended, to push for the rebuilding of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, which most of the international community considers illegal. There is.
On Sunday, Ben Gvir and Smotrich endorsed Netanyahu.
“Benny Gantz is a small leader and a big fraud who, from the first moment he joined this government, has been primarily focused on efforts to dismantle it,” Ben Gvir said. He cited Gantz's visit to Washington earlier this year and previous talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as signs of weakness. “The time has come to dismantle the existing cabinet and change policy.” [to one that is] A resolute, strong, decisive person. ”
Smotrich wrote to X: “Benny, it's your fault and your colleagues in the Preconceptions Cabinet who, under US pressure, continue to push for an end to the war and the establishment of a Palestinian state after October 7th.” He called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to decide that Israel should take full security control of the Gaza Strip.
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who will head to Israel on Sunday after a visit to Saudi Arabia, said Israel should allow the relatively secular Palestinian Authority, based in the West Bank, to regain control of Gaza. The Biden administration is trying to advance its position that this is the case. strip.
Sullivan met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Sunday morning to discuss the Gaza war and a “credible path to a two-state solution” by ending the conflict and facilitating the entry of humanitarian aid, the Saudi state news agency said. We talked.
In a six-point plan laid out on Saturday, Gantz calls for establishing an international “civilian governance structure” for the enclave with US, European, Arab and Palestinian participation, alongside Israeli security control. said it should.
He also said the plan should include the return of Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza. Defeat of Hamas and demilitarization of enclaves. The return of Israelis to areas of northern Israel from which they had been evacuated since the start of the war. A step towards normalization with Saudi Arabia. and a framework to expand Israel's military service to recruit more ultra-Orthodox Jews.
Gantz presented his ultimatum to Prime Minister Netanyahu as a choice between his vision and the vision supported by Smotrich, Ben-Gvir and their allies. “If you choose the path of fanaticism and lead the entire country into the abyss, we will be forced to leave the government,” he said.
“The people of Israel are watching you. You must choose between Zionism and cynicism, unity and sectarianism, responsibility and lawlessness, and victory and disaster.”
Netanyahu's critics have repeatedly accused him of allowing war decisions to be colored by a desire to maintain the coalition should Ben Gvir and Smotrich leave.
Earlier this week, Defense Minister Yoav Galant criticized Netanyahu for the lack of a post-war plan for Gaza, urging him to “put national priorities above all other considerations, even at the cost of possible personal or political sacrifice.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied accusations that he is pre-empting war and getting personal and, in response to Prime Minister Gallant, said any discussion of Hamas's “next day” until Israel achieves military victory in Gaza “is out of touch with reality.” It's disconnected,” he said.
Additional reporting by Ahmed Al Omran in Jeddah
