Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz, a key member of Israel’s war Cabinet, resigned from the emergency government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday evening, calling for early elections “as soon as possible.”
“Netanyahu is preventing us from advancing to a real victory. That is why we are leaving the emergency government today with a heavy but with a whole heart,” Gantz said in a press conference in Tel Aviv.
The resignation came after Gantz had given Netanyahu a June 8 deadline to formulate a clear strategy for Israel’s war on Gaza and its aftermath earlier on May 18.
Among Gantz’s several demands were the return of all hostages from Gaza, undermining Hamas’ rule in the Palestinian enclave, the disarmament of the Gaza Strip, establishing a European-Arab coalition to manage the region, ensuring the return of northern residents to their homes, and universal military service for all Israelis.
– Fate of the government?
The withdrawal of Gantz’s Blue and White party, which has 21 deputies, will not cause the emergency government to collapse, as Netanyahu already has the backing of 64 deputies out of 120 in the Knesset. To form or continue a government, at least 61 deputies’ confidence is required.
Gantz’s resignation, however, will be a breakthrough for the far-right Jewish Power party, led by Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the ultra-nationalist Religious Zionist party led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Both parties were not satisfied with war decisions being in the hands of the emergency Cabinet, which did not include their representatives.
Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, two of the staunchest supporters of continuing the war on Gaza, demanded on several occasions to join the Cabinet or its dissolution.
Israeli newspaper Maariv’s political analyst Anna Barsky said Ben-Gvir and Smotrich would once again demand to join the War Cabinet in place of Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, a senior National Unity party leader and War Cabinet observer who also resigned.
Citing sources close to Netanyahu, she claimed that the Blue and White party’s withdrawal would push Israel’s hawkish prime minister to dissolve the war Cabinet.
– Opposition mobilization
Over the recent months, the Israeli opposition, led by Yair Lapid, has repeatedly called on Gantz and Eisenkot to withdraw from the government.
The opposition wants Gantz, a former Chief of General Staff of the Israeli army, to join its ranks in an attempt to topple the government and push for early elections.
According to Israel’s state broadcaster, the US administration tried to convince Gantz not to leave the government.
It reported that “the Americans contacted Gantz recently and tried to verify the possibility of delaying or preventing his withdrawal from the war government.”
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 Hamas incursion despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.
More than 37,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and nearly 84,500 others injured, according to local health authorities.
Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.