Gantz: Hamas members who will not surrender - will be buried in the ground or deep under it/without
Let's start with an exercise in mental imagination: let's go back five and a half months, and imagine, hypothetically of course, what would have happened if, on the evening of October 7, Benny Gantz had not distinguished himself from Meir Lapid, and had adopted the condition that the latter set for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a national emergency government: dismissal of his partners, Itamar Ben Gabir and Bezalel Smotrich, who were leading to the complete disintegration of the right-wing government.
Suppose, in the world of speculation, that Gantz and Lapid would stand up to Netanyahu as a wall and force him to dissolve the partnership with the extreme right and form a true unity government.
Whether he agreed or refused, for better or for worse, the Iron Swords War would probably have looked completely different.
In the non-speculative reality, Gantz thought that Netanyahu would never agree to give up Block 64 and its key to governmental survival.
In the total catastrophe atmosphere of the hours and days after the Simchat Torah massacre, former chiefs of staff Gantz and Eisenkot were determined to join the war effort at any cost, even as an annex to the Netanyahu-Ben Gabir-Smotrich government. The war cabinet allowed both sides to go with and feel without: Netanyahu received internal legitimacy and internationally to manage the campaign without undermining any members of the coalition, Gantz was given access to the decision-making table, without receiving a single file and no authority or responsibility for what is happening in the ultra-right-wing government of Ben Gabir and Smotrich.
He was determined to join the fight at any cost.
Gantz/Flash 90, Jonathan Zindel
Until now, this patent served both parties politically: Gantz was rewarded by the public for his spirit of unity and patriotism and jumped to the position of the next prime minister in the polls.
And he gave Netanyahu precious recovery time from the shock of October 7th, in which he crowded the ranks of his party, strengthened the foundations of his coalition, launched his next election campaign and launched his poison machine to spread conspiracy theories that distance him from responsibility for the October 7th disaster.
But Gideon Sa'ar's announcement of the dissolution of the state camp and the split into his own independent faction signals a change in the balance to the detriment of Gantz, who, for the second time, fell victim to the art of divide and rule of Israeli politics, even if he had no direct or indirect hand in the process.
Five months after the greatest security disaster in the country's history, not only is the ground not shaking under Netanyahu, but he may still emerge stronger: Sa'ar's disengagement from Gantz only expands his basket of future possibilities, and feeds dreams of the 68 coalition the day after.
It leaves Gantz with a faction of 8 MKs, minus a third of his strength. Not in the polls, but in the opposition in the current Knesset if and when he decides to retire. And his new mandates, so Gantz fears, will wander away from him if he leaves the government and abandons the flag of state unity. Therefore, he prefers to continue to go with and feel without, even though his influence on the government of Netanyahu Ben Gabir and Smotrich is decreasing, until it does not exist at all.
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The split signals a change in the balance to Gantz's detriment.
Gideon Sa'ar/image processing, Reuven Castro
The presence of Gantz and Eisenkot in the war cabinet was indeed of decisive strategic importance in the first two months of the war, in fateful decisions on the return of the kidnapped, the maneuvering in Gaza, and the opening of another front in the north;
It also had a tremendous meaning for the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and militiamen who fought in the tunnels and trenches and for their senior commanders who are under constant fire from Ben Gabir, Miri Regev and Dodi Amsalem at every cabinet meeting, and for the families of the kidnapped who are thirsty for answers.
But since the first hostage deal in December, Netanyahu has returned to his element.
He ignores, spreads, divides and violates with a wave brush about every clause in the agreement.
Under Eisenkot's pressure, he renewed the negotiations on another hostage outline, but for weeks he has been piling difficulties on him and hardening the positions of the negotiating team and doing what he does best: wasting the time that Gantz gave him.
Gantz, meanwhile, is playing with limits His patent and trying to score as many points as possible from the inside; the members of the state camp voted against the state budget this week, and do not bother to come to the weekly cabinet meetings like the other ministers. On the other hand, they have been delaying for a month the opposition's attempts to summon the prime minister for a discussion of 40 signatures and are not willing to attach their signatures Also for the discussions on the equality of the burden and the restitution of the abducted, issues that are on their agenda also in the internal government struggles.
Back in his element.
Netanyahu/Official website, Roy Avraham/L.A.M., Sound: Yehezkel Kandil/L.A.M
Only as a mere appendage, Gantz did not in the slightest change the direction in which the right-wing government is leading the State of Israel, nor the procrastination of Netanyahu, who for political reasons is prevented from making fateful decisions: not in the sectoral budget, not in the blanket exemption for the ultra-Orthodox, not in the policy in the Yush, not the day after in Gaza, and not in the rift that is deepening every day with the US.
Gantz was frightened by Netanyahu's campaigns against the Palestinian Authority, did not knock on the table, did not present any alternative of his own, did not even publicly declare support for President Biden's plans in the region.
Last week, during his extroverted and uncoordinated visit to Washington, he was "surprised" to discover how much anger there is for the Israeli government in the White House.
Well, it's totally registered in his name too.
During the visit, Gantz also met the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, perhaps the greatest lover of Israel in the Democratic Party today and a personal friend of Netanyahu - who gave one of the harshest speeches ever yesterday and called for elections to replace the extreme coalition that harms Israel.
This is a sentence that many of Gantz's supporters sign with both hands, but he, in response, tweeted that it was a mistake and once again defended Netanyahu and faithfully fulfilled the role of the international whitewasher.
So what if just a week ago the Prime Minister's office made every effort to disrupt his political visits that were closed behind their backs.
Gantz did make more headlines thanks to them, but he did not calm the anger in the administration, and did not prevent Netanyahu from deteriorating the situation with the Biden administration into a dangerous frontal confrontation with Israel.
Gave one of the harshest speeches ever yesterday.
Chuck Schumer/Reuters
Gantz's voice was also not heard in the farce of the Israel Prize ceremony, and the scandalous decision of Education Minister Yoav Kish to cancel the ceremony in order not to award the prize to entrepreneur Eyal Waldman.
Or about the continued delay of Justice Minister Yariv Levin's appointment of Yitzhak Amit as President of the Supreme Court, and the atmosphere of political purges that emerges from the meetings of the Committee for the Selection of Judges.
Nor about the violence against the demonstrators, including the families of the abductees, which the Ben Gabvir police operate.
Even if he is only an appendage, Gantz is a silent partner in all the bad things that Netanyahu and his government continue to do.
As time passes, the patent erodes, and even his supporters - the real ones, not the imagined ones - start to question what he's actually doing there.
None of Gantz's parameters for ending this partnership - the return of the abductees, peace in the north, and the return of the refugees from all over the country to their homes - have not yet been fulfilled.
But the time he gave to Netanyahu and his government has backfired on him and is now working to his detriment - and perhaps also to the detriment of the country - and he has no exit strategy that will respond to this.
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Benny Gantz
Benjamin Netanyahu