Two years later, Gantz’s Blue and White Party is not crossing the electoral threshold, and Gantz is suddenly slinging mud and muddying only himself.
By GIL HOFFMANAlternate Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Benny Gantz seen during a visit on the Israel-Lebanon border, Northern Israel, on November 17, 2020.(photo credit: DAVID COHEN/FLASH 90)
When Benny Gantz entered politics two years ago, his campaign advisers had a hard time persuading him to be negative and critical.Gantz told them that stooping to slinging mud just wasn’t him.They eventually got him to attack Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but it wasn’t easy.Two years later, Gantz’s Blue and White Party is not crossing the electoral threshold, and Gantz is suddenly slinging mud and muddying only himself.If Blue and White cannot cross the threshold on its own, it will need to build political partnerships. Nevertheless, Gantz is burning bridges, not building them.Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid “hates people,” Gantz said Friday on Channel 12’s Ophira and Berko. The same day, he also insulted the No. 2 man in Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai’s Israelis Party, former justice minister Avi Nissenkorn.Those two parties are the clearest ideological fit to partner with Blue and White.Regardless of the insults, just ahead of the February 4 deadline for lists to be submitted to the Central Elections Committee, there will be multiple mergers of parties. The polls will dictate which mergers end up happening, not just personalities.So when the time comes in a month, will Blue and White be viewed as an electoral asset or a liability? Would adding Gantz be a boost or a bust?On the one hand, Gantz has become a figure who arouses antagonism. The tens of thousands of Israelis who have attended protests over the past several months will not want to vote for a list that includes one of the leaders of the outgoing government.
His indecisiveness and waffling and repeated concessions to Netanyahu will not score him points in the “anyone but Bibi” camp.On the other hand, Gantz remains a former IDF chief of staff with experience running the Defense Ministry. His party’s remaining ministers, who would come with him in any merger, have positive reputations for the most part. Blue and White would come with a dowry of an estimated NIS 20 million in party funding in its coffers and plenty of air time for election propaganda.But the most important asset Gantz has is his glass slipper.According to the bills passed into law to enable the formation of the outgoing government, Gantz will automatically become prime minister on November 17 if no government is formed by then, as long as he is a member of Knesset. If no new government can be formed after the current election, this will become a realistic way to remove Netanyahu from the Prime Minister’s Office and bring the premiership to whatever party Gantz will be in at the time.This possibility can bring hope to anti-Netanyahu voters wherever they are on the political map.And it would enable Gantz to prove to his former advisers that he did not need to become a beast to come to power. All he had to do was prove he is not a burden.
