Gabi Ashkenazi quits Blue and White, as party continues to unravel
Ashkenazi will not be quitting post as foreign minister. Benny Gantz credited him with helping to stop annexation of the West Bank.
By GIL HOFFMANDEFENSE MINISTER and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz speaks to Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi during the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on May 31.(photo credit: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS)
Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi announced on Wednesday afternoon that he is quitting Blue and White and will not run in the March 23 election.Ashkenazi will not be quitting his post as foreign minister or leaving the Knesset. He told Blue and White leader Benny Gantz of his decision and wished him well in the election.Although he was critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he said he did not regret joining the government."Blue and White presented an alternative to Netanyahu and we decided to have influence from inside the government out of national responsibility," Ashkenazi said.Ashkenazi took credit for the Abraham Accords, saying that he changed the discourse away from annexation and opened up opportunities for peace accords.Gantz said he respected Ashkenazi's decision. He credited him with restoring respect to the Foreign Ministry."Gabi helped the foreign ministry recover from years of neglect and reassert itself as the leading and influential ministry it should be, while helping to block annexation and promote regional normalization," Gantz said. "I am certain he will continue to make a meaningful contribution to Israeli public life."Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn and his longtime confidante, Blue and White MK Einav Kabla, who are joining the Israelis party of Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai, will quit the Knesset on Sunday.They will be replaced by the next two candidates on the combined Blue and White-Yesh Atid list, Moshe Kinley Tur Paz and Vladimir Beliak of Yesh Atid.Tur-Paz was until recently the director-general of the Jerusalem Education Authority. He was born to British parents who had made aliyah in the 1950s, while they were emissaries in Philadelphia. He spent part of his childhood in England when they were emissaries again. His father was a senior official at the Jewish Agency in Israel.
