Something or someone had to give, and it was General Benny Gantz. The former Chief of General Staff left Israel's unity government on Sunday, June 9. His influence was waning in this alliance, which had long been paralyzed. He joined shortly after the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, to help wage war in Gaza and on the Lebanese border.

A self-proclaimed "safeguard" of Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist allies, Gantz has given up hope of making an impact from within and is preparing to bring pressure to bear on the streets. The prime minister "is preventing us from achieving a true victory," he repeated on Sunday evening, once again asking him to call elections.

"Don't let our people be torn apart," he said, knowing that Netanyahu was under no obligation to give in. The prime minister's coalition of right-wingers and religious fundamentalists remains unscathed, holding 64 of the 120 seats in Parliament. By law, it can remain in power until 2026. But it has not been politically legitimate since October 7, bearing responsibility for the historic collapse of the state in the face of the Hamas onslaught.

For the past six months, elected members of Gantz's party, National Unity, as well as the parliamentary opposition and a whole association of ex-servicemen, have been urging him to stop backing this government without a course for war. He still considered himself useful. As early as October 2023, he had relayed pressure from Washington to prevent the outbreak of war in Lebanon.

The former Chief of the General Staff had also lobbied for a brief truce, which led to the release, in November 2023, of some 100 hostages held in the Gaza Strip. His departure makes a new deal with Hamas less likely. Gantz apologized to the hostages' families: "We failed, and the responsibility is also mine," he declared.

"Our influence is very limited, if it even exists anymore," Matan Kahana, an elected member of Gantz's party and a former Special Forces operative, said to Le Monde in May. "We're tired of creating the conditions for an agreement," he said at the time. "We've realized that Netanyahu will always prefer to keep his coalition" with the far right, which is hostile to any agreement.

"Strategic and crucial decisions are taken by the government out of political considerations," said Gantz on Sunday, accusing Netanyahu of prolonging the war for personal political gain. Netanyahu called on him one last time not to "leave the battlefield"; his supporters are already accusing the general of "betraying" the country.

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