Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, said on Saturday night that he would soon leave the country’s wartime government unless Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commits to a plan that would return the hostages and address the future governance of Gaza.
Gantz, who joined the government after the October 7 terror attack as an emergency wartime measure, issued the ultimatum amid growing frustration with Netanyahu’s failure to reach an agreement with Hamas to bring home the remaining hostages and his purported flip-flopping on the Rafah operation.
In a televised address on Saturday, Gantz warned Netanyahu that the “people of Israel are watching you”.
He added, “You must choose between Zionism and cynicism, between unity and factions, between responsibility and lawlessness, between victory and disaster.”
Gantz also criticised Netanyahu’s alleged warming to calls from the hard right in the country to re-establish Israeli settlements in post-war Gaza. “If you choose the path of zealots, dragging the country into the abyss, we will be forced to leave the government,” he said.
Gantz, who leads the National Unity party, set a deadline of June 8 for a plan to achieve six “strategic goals”, including the end of Hamas rule in Gaza and the establishment of a multinational civilian administration for the territory.
He also said Israel should arrange for the return of displaced Israeli residents of the north back to their homes by September 1, and should continue to seek the normalisation of relations with Saudi Arabia as part of a “comprehensive process to create an alliance with the free world and the West against Iran and its allies.”
Gantz’s departure would not by itself topple Netanyahu’s government, which would still hold 64 seats in the 120-member Parliament, but it would end the fragile wartime partnership between Netanyahu’s hard-line coalition with more moderate figures.
Netanyahu dismissed his comments as “washed-up words” that would result in “defeat for Israel.”
Gantz’s ultimatum comes just three days after Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, a member of the prime minister’s own Likud party, issued a similar criticism of Netanyahu’s leadership. Gallant urged Netanyahu to state publicly that Israel had no plans to take over civilian and military rule in Gaza.
