Gantz: "We delayed dismantling the Hamas government because of dragging our feet"/Leam
Do you remember that at the beginning of the war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Galant and Minister Benny Gantz would hold joint press conferences together?
Well, the presentation of harmony and unity, which faltered from the beginning, has long since collapsed, and in fact, for almost two months, since December 16, the three members of the War Cabinet have not sat down together on the same stage in Kriya.
Netanyahu summons the media there for a press conference once a week or ten days, Gallant makes independent statements about once every two weeks, and Gantz more like once a month.
This is how the embarrassing schedule glitch happened this week, when the media systems received, minutes apart, two summonses, to Galant and Gantz, to the same place and the same time. The pushers on the websites jumped at the opportunity for drama, which ended in a short time with a message from Gantz's office about the postponement of the statement for the day. This There was an uproar over nothing, a title that was only right for its time, but it reflected the situation of the war cabinet: together we will win, only separately.
And not only externally. According to the coalition agreement between Netanyahu and Gantz, the reduced war cabinet - in which Gadi Eisenkot also sits, Ron Dermer and Aryeh Deri - are supposed to meet every other day. This hasn't happened for a long time. At best, there are two discussions a week, and the Prime Minister's Office has already groped Gantz if he would agree to a new method: to convene the War Cabinet only once a week.
At the weekly cabinet meeting, Elia Gantz and the ministers of the state camp usually do not bother to come, Netanyahu also said that he intends to reverse the order of decision-making: to start with the expanded cabinet, with the Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gabir and the Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich, and only then to continue discussions in the reduced cabinet.
It's been a long time since they've been seen together - and they're hardly meant to be/photo editing, Yonatan Zindel, Oren Ben Hakon/Flash 90, Amir Goldstein
For four months, Netanyahu juggled between the two forums as he saw fit: with the internal and international legitimacy of Gantz and Eisenkot, he made the major decisions on the progress of the war and the talks for the release of the kidnapped;
In the expanded cabinet, with Ben Gabir and Smotrich, he preserves the base and the coalition, and there he rolls the explosive political decisions.
There he also sends Miri Regev and Dodi Amsalem, who is invited as a guest of honor, for orchestrated attacks on the Chief of Staff or the head of the Shin Bet, and from there also leaks an uninhibited stream of transcripts until eight in the evening in the editions.
The attempt to dilute the war cabinet and strengthen his coalition partners sharpens, once again, what preoccupies the head of his priorities.
But even the expanded cabinet only meets once a week, so what Netanyahu really wants is to simply make the decisions alone.
Thus, he did not summon the War Cabinet to a meeting with the American Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, for the first time among his six visits since the outbreak of the war, nor did he hold a preliminary discussion with them about the fateful positions and issues that arose during his visit.
He did not convene the war cabinet even on the dramatic days of Tuesday and Wednesday, when Hamas handed over to the mediators his answer to the outline for the release of hostages.
He also made the prime-time violation statement in which he officially responded to the developments in the negotiations without consulting with Gantz and Gallant, his alleged partners in the management of the campaign, not even by phone.
Just last night, the war cabinet met for the first time since Sunday, by the way - before the expanded cabinet, as always.
So he said, as they say.
All of Netanyahu's conduct regarding the negotiations for the release of the abductees in recent weeks has been a solo flight, disconnected and sometimes even contrary to the decisions of the War Cabinet: the public red lines and the trending leaks about the frightening numbers, the recordings against Qatar, the central mediator, the attacks invited by Likud ministers, the contemptible panelists of Shofar 14 Now against the families of the abductees. On the one hand, Netanyahu sent the head of the Mossad and the head of the Shin Bet to Paris to initiate negotiations, and on the other hand, he launched a campaign that blackmailed him with coalition threats and mobilized the base to oppose the heavy prices - even before there was even a finished proposal on the table.
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With Ben Gabir and Smotrich, Netanyahu maintains Base/Flash 90, an official website
The summit in Paris would also never have come, apparently, without Eisenkot's insistence on increasing political efforts to free the abductees at a War Cabinet meeting last month.
But Netanyahu, since then, has only piled up difficulties on them, and pushes Gantz's state camp another millimeter over the edge.
Gantz is biting his lip and bluffing, for now.
Just as he complains about the sectoral and corrupt budget that the government is promoting, about the refusal to make decisions about who will rule Gaza the day after, about the provocations and conspiracies of Ben Gabir and Knesset member Tali Gottlieb, about the removal of the sheriff's commissioner during the war, in total violation of the coalition agreements, about the campaigns that The bibists are managing against him during the war.
Gantz is content with well-publicized stings and reprimands and angry tweets, and collects everything in an updated list that will build the case the day he decides to leave. But that day, according to his people, is not yet near, as long as there is a chance to return more abductees from Gaza and a chance for war in the north Netanyahu, on the other hand, is already in extraction mode and behaves towards Gantz accordingly, and we've already been in this movie before and seen how it ended. He just doesn't really count him out. Netanyahu knows that as long as there is a realistic chance of returning more abductees home, Gantz and Eisenkot will have a hard time leaving the government and leaving Their fate is in the hands of Ben Gvir and Smotrich. The negotiations allow him to drag out time and keep them constantly on the edge, but the more he continues to dilute and divide and postpone the difficult decisions in favor of his personal and coalition considerations - he brings closer the moment when the war cabinet will simply collapse.
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Gaza war
War of Iron Swords
Benjamin Netanyahu
Benny Gantz
Gadi Eisenkot