Ganz's response to the events proved that the solution to the budget crisis is still a long way off. • Will the replacement prime minister end his political path as well as his business path?
Benny Ganz sounded annoyed yesterday. For a week he was hospitalized in Tel Hashomer and kept what was on his mind in his stomach, and immediately after his release he convened a press conference to vent his anger.
Live: Bnei Gantz speaks at the Kirya in Tel Aviv // Photo: GPO
On the agreement hidden from it. And on the aircraft transaction, if any, from which it is excluded. And that they feared an election had not yet passed from the world - five days before the deadline for passing a budget.
Gantz is furious that Netanyahu does not count him, does not intend to honor the agreement with him and plans to leave him alone in a brutal election campaign, now or in time, in which he is expected to end and apparently end the political chapter in his life anointed with tar and feathers. Almost the way he finished the business chapter.
In a real partnership it was an inappropriate act. Netanyahu would have been justified in criticizing the compartmentalization of those who are supposed to sit at the relevant decision-making junctions, such as the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and for acting alone without their participation and perhaps even the help of professionals in their ministry. But the partnership is not real. She is on the verge of dissolution. Trust strives for zero and the ability to share information, other than that which is necessary, is almost non-existent. Politically, Netanyahu does not count Gantz. He is currently busy building Yair Lapid as an alternative that will face him in a future election campaign. In his vision, Lapid leads the anti-Netanyahu bloc all the way to loss, and Bnei Gantz simply has no place in this equation.
It's really hard to share Gantz with secrets that revelations can do harm. During the three election campaigns he led, countless recordings and publications were leaked by his people, including those that caused great damage to the campaign and embarrassed him and the top of his party time and time again. Despite repeated desperate attempts the leaks did not stop for a moment. Even so, Ganz is exposed to secrets, intelligence and military information by virtue of his position. Passing on to him additional information that is not obligatory would border on irresponsibility.
If in Gantz the leaks are mainly due to Shlomielia, in Ashkenazi the story is completely different. Only four and a half years ago, the ombudsman, Yehuda Weinstein, published a report on his exploits in the Harpaz affair, in which he stated that Ashkenazi had leaked top-secret information to journalists and an unauthorized government minister. In three different cases, when one of them did not touch the IDF at all, the organization he was in charge of was Ashkenazi, but another secret security organization.
With all due respect to the coalition partnership, it is more important to implement the agreement and not abandon it only in the name of political collegiality.
At the press conference he held yesterday, Ganz spoke about the fact that he can "swallow rock" and move on even when he sees things being done against his will as soon as it is in the interest of the State of Israel. His speech would probably have sounded less angry, and he would have been willing to swallow larger amounts of rock if he had not known that the agreement between him and Netanyahu was behind him, and so was the vote on the state budget. Gantz's criticism revolved around the political issue, but what really bothers him is the political conduct.
Ganz's response taught more than anything that although the parties seemed to be coming together for a solution, nothing was closed yet. The move to postpone the deadline for submitting a budget was indeed motivated but not completed. Netanyahu demands a complete package beyond the question of whether it will be an annual or biennial budget and it is not certain that Gantz will be able to satisfy all his lusts.
Politically and historically, the peace agreement with the United Arab Emirates is significant and with a chance for a strategic horizon. Sudan is already involved - which may solve the problem of infiltrators. Oman and Bahrain are also on the way and maybe maybe Saudi Arabia as well. If so, it is a matter of splitting the Arab world into a camp of Israel versus a camp of Iran, as it never has been.
Politically, the event places Netanyahu, once again, as the number one statesman in the country, perhaps even in the world, although in the meantime the visible benefits are mostly pleasant around issues of tourism and economics, which are mostly nice but not much more than that.
On normal days it might have been helpful. But these are not ordinary days.
In the days of the Corona, when people groan under the economic burden, they are less interested in planning their next vacation, and certainly not in deciding the identity of the prime minister.
Sudan's surprise accession, on its own initiative, is the latest nail in the covert paradigm that states that peace can only be achieved if concessions to territories and the establishment of another Arab state in our territories. The weeping and groaning sounds of the left feed on social media probably not only teach about giggles, but, perhaps, also about the swan song.