At least the resignation of Minister Benny Gantz will not immediately lead Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to a crisis.
Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu mismanages the war in Gaza and puts the continuity of his own career before the interest of the country.
This was by a politically centrist minister and former military commander Benny Gantz message when he “with a heavy heart” resigned from the war cabinet headed by Netanyahu.
“Unfortunately, Netanyahu is preventing us from achieving a real victory that justifies the ongoing war,” Gantz said in his resignation announcement.
The resignation is not an immediate threat to the continuation of Netanyahu’s government, as his coalition government has a majority in the parliament. However, it puts Netanyahu even more at the mercy of his ultra-nationalist partners who oppose the US-backed ceasefire and want to continue the war.
Gantz represents the voice of Israelis who want the country to take a new direction. Gantz had demanded from Netanyahu by June 8 a plan for what will happen to Gaza after the war.
According to Gantz’s view, the plan cannot be that Israel reoccupies Gaza, but the Israeli government should promote Palestinian rule in the area.
The rescue operation postponed the separation
Gantz was supposed to hold his press conference already on Saturday evening, but the plans were messed up by the Israeli army’s operation to release hostages in Gaza during the day on Saturday. It released four Israeli hostages kidnapped in October.
At the same time, according to the Gaza health authorities, 274 Gazans lost their lives in the operation.
Gantz joined Netanyahu in the war cabinet and the defense minister by Yoav Gallant alongside shortly after Hamas’s attack on Israel in October. His inclusion strengthened Israel’s credibility among international actors as a counterweight to the government’s extremists.
– I don’t think that the United States is happy about the separation, because it considered Gantz and his party responsible members, says the professor Gideon Money From the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to the news agency AP.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will start a trip to Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Qatar on Monday.
On Sunday, Gantz also called on Gallant to resign from the war cabinet and he demanded that Netanyahu call elections for the fall.
There is no end in sight to the operation in Gaza
The Gaza cease-fire is now likely to slip away as a result of Gantz’s resignation and the hostage rescue operation.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s extremist government partner, security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir already on Sunday claimed the seat left by Gantz in the war cabinet for himself. In his opinion, the war cabinet has been too lazy when mediating different ideological views.
– A successful operation to release the hostages will probably make Netanyahu dig in his positions, so shoot now and negotiate later, says an expert on Middle East politics Laura Blumenfeld from John Hopkins University.
In a poll commissioned by Israel Public Radio in May, 54 percent of the respondents felt that Netanyahu is not doing enough to free the hostages.
According to the expert, Hamasinka’s leadership does not necessarily have a movement for a ceasefire. Head of the political wing of Hamas Yahya Sinwar sees what happens to public opinion in the US and internationally as the number of war casualties in Gaza rises.
– He believes that public opinion is on the side of his movement and there is no rush to accept a ceasefire. In his own mind, he is winning, says the researcher Jonathan Lord From the Center For A New American Security think tank to the news agency Reuters.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said on Monday that at least 37,124 people have died in the Strip during the eight-month war.
AFP, AP, Reuters