Integrity, other politics and even naivety raised and lowered the Bnei Gantz at the same speed • We accompanied him in his fateful week, and heard why he got into it all
"I will never dare to use against my opponents what I know of them."
Ganz in his home
Photo:
Yossi Zeliger
Benny Ganz tried to pass the last days of the fourth election campaign in a number even in a few pleasant moments, even though he defines them as "hated by me every time again."
It happens when we are hiking in the forest near his house in Rosh HaAyin and he is amazed by the anemone blooms: "Look what a beauty, come on, are there such things?";
Or when we visit the Habima Theater that is returning to sanity, rehearsing for a show that will soon take the stage, he tries to capture the experience with a smile on his face: "Give me a few more minutes, you know how long I have not been in the theater? This is my most beautiful part of the day. I already have this type? ";
Or when he asks for a ride on our photographer's heavy motorcycle, Yossi: "I rode a Harley-Davidson, this motorcycle for me is like a moped."
In general, throughout the week, in which we accompanied Gantz to prepare the article that could certainly be his last as the Deputy Prime Minister, it was difficult not to notice that Gantz trusts his voters. To anyone who just wants to hear, he says the polls are misleading and largely to his detriment: "6-7 seats than 4," he says confidently and for a moment shouts in his voice, "Yes, there are still those who believe honestly, fairly, without zigzagging."
Bibi, Israel and the endless loop
but in the journey with him, the desire was to get from him a summary from last crazy year and fewer election slogans.
A year of two election campaigns, exposure to his private life in prime time and a monumental crash from the post of deputy prime minister to another party leader fighting to get through the blocking percentage.
Gantz, to his credit, talks about everything openly - both about failures but also about successes, and mostly insists his success is related to the fact that politics did not change him, even when he met the "great evil" or "the insulting betrayal of people I thought were friends".
What Gantz did we see in the week before the election?
You will judge for yourselves, but in face-to-face meetings it was difficult not to notice that the Israeli public is angry with Ganz, but also knows how to appreciate his actions.
When he meets with his classmates in the Green Village at a zoom meeting, the name "Rabin" is repeated more than once.
His supporters are urging him not to resign, even if it means another round of elections.
"I had a big accident with Bibi Netanyahu," Gantz admits to them during the trip, while dressing for another international interview. "I do not deny it. I also know that I will not be prime minister in the next election, but that does not mean I will not be prime minister at all. Because I faced such a great evil in every way, and they attacked me in ways I did not believe - I need to change and then I will want you? Will I be worse off, I will actually give Bibi a counter or bring another politics? It will not happen. I know no less things about them "From what they know about me, but I will never dare to use it, and that's what I explain to anyone who tells me I should be bad or attack personally."
The audience claps their hands in zoom, but is still disappointed.
"You must call him more 'the defendant' and less Bibi," one of the participants pleads with him.
Maybe in the end the fact that the supporters are dwindling is related to the fact that this time too you plan to sit down with Netanyahu?
"No way, bro. There's no way I'll sit down with Bibi again," he dismisses my remarks with a dismissive hand gesture, "Bibi needs to be replaced, and who can replace him better than the one who faced him in three elections, and prevented him from doing things that would degrade Israel to much worse places, which we can still reach if he is elected? Netanyahu has done a lot of good things for this country, and I do not like people insisting that I call him 'the accused', because that is not my way.
"The most important goal at the moment is to remove him from office. Already in the upcoming elections, otherwise the State of Israel will enter an endless loop of elections at best and at worst for full control of Bibi and the far right.
Do not worry, Ben Gvir and Smutrich will not sit down with Abbas (laughs). "
The insult of the friends who betrayed the
entrance to the Habima Theater is waiting for Gantz, Minister of Culture and Sports Hili Trooper and Theater Director Noam Semel. "You hear alone what Hili does for culture, I'm not saying that.
"And I think the same is true of the other offices that were under our control," he says in what sounds like an assertive half-sentence.
Lia Koenig hugs the boy Ganz. For the 91-year-old theater legend, last year's big break was terrible. "And you do not understand, Sir, "she tells him," how important it was for us to go back to the theater.
You know what this is for me a year without. "
It seems Ganz was happy to sit here and talk to the legends of the theater, far from the agenda jams constant with whom he chose to sign with him waltz out of hell.
You did not hide his pleasure having you here timeout swill political "And that's exactly why the question arises, why the hell do you even get into this game?
" "There is a difference between knowing and experiencing it in your flesh," he says, "when I tell you the water in the cold sea you will believe what I tell you but only when you try yourself and the water. They will get you where they are going - you will understand how cold they are.
I had to experience all these things on my flesh to understand them. "
But we're here in the theater, and Bibi is leading his show all over the country, fighting tooth and nail to win.
" True, I do not have the drive of anyone who wants to escape trial and possibly imprisonment, so what?
Should I apologize for not being in this situation?
I knew Netanyahu one before 2015 and another Netanyahu after that.
Since the trial began Bibi has been a different person.
They say I'm not bad enough, but when I got into politics I stood in front of the mirror and said to myself, when I shave in front of the mirror, that I would always be able to identify myself in the mirror - even after I finished shaving - and not let politics change me.
Can Bibi say the same thing? "
Gantz replaced the meetings around the country with zoom and TV studios. The large team around him works under pressure around the clock, sometimes, it seems, even more than the groom himself, who insists on staying true to his worldview that will lead him - in his view - one day. The days for the senior office.
The long-distance runner replaced the runs with long walks. Occasionally he combines running "just so as not to get bored and let the adrenaline work." The back surgery prevents the regular run for eight kilometers but at 61 he does not listen too much to what is recommended In Corona, he says, he gained a few pounds like everyone else, "and maybe I'm on a fat diet at all," he laughs.
His mood changed a lot throughout his tenure, and feelings like insult were no stranger to him.
I join him for a quick walk in the forests of Rosh HaAyin - where he is loved by local hikers, who find it hard to miss him.
He in turn immediately takes the camera for a shared selfie, responds to everyone.
With all the love you get here, what have been the moments you have been most offended by over the past year?
"There were two: when I saw the ad posted by someone I thought were people from my camp, I was offended to the depths of my soul. Just as I was offended that people from my camp were protesting against me. I went out on this mission for them, and in the end they come against me? In life no. There the voters always, with all the criticism, stand behind the leader in the moment of truth. That's why, by the way, I win more sympathy in the Likud than in my political camp. They appreciate someone who does not zigzag. Likud ministers come to me, slander Bibi, but then "Licking" him in real time. "
The second feeling of insult is related to the surprising departure of former Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn: "I did not believe I could not teach people, and what he did to me proved that I did not study him. I, who fought for him to be Minister of Justice, expected a different treatment. I went into this battle for him "And in the end without informing anyone he gets up and leaves. Yes, I'm a politician and I've been chief of staff and I have experience in life, but I'm still allowed to get hurt and offended by people, probably when they make such a move."
And yes, that's about the most blatant sentence we heard . I repeat to him his adversaries did not shy away from any means - insulted him, fell on him, both politically and personally, and became his life. "talk about the origins, it sparks responsible for the deaths of 6,000 Israelis", insisting on the street stress has its supporters.
Why You really do not mention the corona? Why not use it in an election campaign?
"Bibi's management certainly has a part in it, but it's an epidemic and I can not lie and say that because of Bibi these people died.
Did he make wrong decisions in Corona?
I think throughout the corona Bibi made decisions based on the recommendations of the Ministry of Health and the experts, until it came to his personal interest.
"When it came to this place - between what the experts say and how it serves it - he made a choice that it would serve him, and here was a very big problem in management."
The claim that the decisions made in Corona were political decisions has been made more than once.
As the alternate prime minister and whoever was there, can you attest that this is indeed what happened?
"The decisions that were made were sometimes of concern to certain sectors. I think if I had not fought for him to listen to the experts, in his ideal scenario he would have been willing to open it all just two weeks before the election, and not a month ago as we fought to happen. To open, and if everything works properly, it is thanks to him and what will happen after the election will already happen after the election. "
When you say certain sectors you mean mainly the ultra-Orthodox.
"The ultra-Orthodox made a decision that was very painful for me - that they are a country within a country and do what Kanievsky says, and we can only adapt ourselves. I understand the needs of the ultra-Orthodox, I understand that their studies above all and unfortunately in our camp it is not like that. "Does this justify the incitement that exists against the ultra-Orthodox at the moment and that they should be thrown in the landfill? The answer is definitely no and I am not ready to accept this discourse. They are part of Israeli society and should be integrated and not kept away."
It is permissible to insist on the truth
in his humble home in Rosh HaAyin, in a classic neighborhood of military personnel, Ganz suddenly insists on returning to his rival for prime minister: "I hear he wanted to close the skies over Jordan to punish them. Hello, you are all prime minister, calm down. We do not live The fact that he has allowed himself to trade in vaccines with countries, that he brags about security operations and I am silent, just shows how much the politics I bring have a place.
"I can hear no more from people that politics is not for people who insist on truth, who say what they think, Who want to lead the country to a better place and not think only of their own ass like all the other politicians.
If this is the country you want to live in, ask the norms - please, then live in it and after we have corrupted it you will live with it in peace.
But do you want your children to live in such a place? "
After three days on the road and random encounters with the public, one can understand how Ganz managed to excite such a large public here. But what is still unclear is how this man thought for one moment that with this attitude of his he could really "
When we get into the ministry car in question, the question arises as to whether it will serve Israel's new prime minister, and whether in the end Ganz will be the last to laugh all the way to the alternative government." There is certainly such a likelihood, "he says. "And from her Bibi is most afraid, and because of her Bibi took us to another election.
Because in this scenario, he faces trial and future imprisonment as a viable option.
"If I am not then prime minister, he will have 61 seats and this country is going to be a less good place to live - whether you live in Tel Aviv or Be'er Sheva."