Benny Gantz, a more centrist member of Israel’s war cabinet and a longtime political rival of Benjamin Netanyahu, threatened to leave Israel’s government if it doesn’t adopt a new plan for the war in Gaza by June 8—threatening to push Israel’s leadership to an even more hard-line approach—as the body of yet another Israeli hostage was recovered.
FILE - Benny Gantz speaks at the announcement of former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot's election bid in ... [+]
In a Saturday speech, Gantz outlined a six-point post-war plan, and claimed he and his centrist National Unity Party would leave the emergency unity government established to respond to the Israel-Hamas war, according to multiple media outlets.
Gantz’s plan would include arranging for the return of all hostages, overthrowing Hamas, demilitarizing Gaza, normalizing foreign relations with Saudi Arabia and establishing a joint U.S., European and Arab Palestinian administration that could be the basis of a future government in Gaza.
The three-person war cabinet, which includes Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, has been showing signs of fraying in recent days, with Gantz’s ultimatum coming days after he backed comments by Gallant, who criticized Netanyahu for failing to produce a post-war plan that finds an alternative government in Gaza to Hamas.
Gantz said on Saturday “something went wrong” after the formation of the initial emergency government, claiming it strayed recently, as “a small minority took over the bridge of the Israeli ship, and is sailing it toward a wall of rocks.”
The Israel Defense Forces announced Saturday it had found the body of Ron Binyamin, who’d been a hostage taken during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Binyamin’s body was recovered alongside the bodies of three other hostages whose recovery was announced on Friday, according to IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari. The IDF concluded Binyamin was killed on Oct. 7 and his body was taken to Gaza.
Following the Oct. 7 attack and the start of the Israel-Hamas war, the Israeli government established the war cabinet as an emergency government. But the war has continued for seven months with no cease-fire agreement, hostage deal or dismantling of Hamas, creating new tensions. Gantz, a popular centrist politician in Israel who has been floated as a successor to Netanyahu, was already a political rival of Netanyahu’s at the cabinet’s outset. As the Associated Press reported, his departure could force Netanyahu to rely more on his far-right political allies, who have traditionally supported Israel’s occupation of Gaza.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu, I look you in the eye tonight and tell you: the choice is in your hands,” Gantz said in his speech, according to a translation from Haaretz. “The Netanyahu of a decade ago would have done the right thing. Are you willing to do the right and patriotic thing today?”