The Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has threatened to resign if Benjamin Netanyahu fails to adopt an agreed plan for Gaza, calling into question the future of the Israeli government.
During a press conference on Saturday, Gantz announced that if a plan for postwar governance of the territory is not consolidated and approved by 8 June, his opposition National Unity party will withdraw from the coalition government.
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On Thursday, defence minister, Yoav Gallant, challenged Netanyahu over the same issue, saying he would not permit any solution where Israeli military or civil governance were in the territory. Gallant’s comments were immediately backed by his fellow minister Gantz, Netanyahu’s main political rival in the emergency coalition, plunging Israel’s leadership into a highly public row.
Holy shit, this is a REALLY misleading headline.
if it was just him quitting, that would be terrible; it would be an anti-war person giving up their power to legally obstruct the war.
It’s “his opposition National Unity party will withdraw from the coalition government”. Unless this article is missing something, wouldn’t breaking up the coalition just basically completely paralyse Israel??
Netanyahu doesn’t need Gantz’s party to remain in power. They’d lose a more moderate voice in the war cabinet. The Unity government would probably lose legitimacy in the eyes of most Israelis. It would be very bad for Netanyahu politically. It would also probably be good for Gantz politically, as recent polling suggests that he might be starting to get some of Netanyahu’s stink on him.
Is this good…? Do they have enough influence to make a difference.
It’s complicated. They don’t have the ability to bring down the government but both Gantz and Gallant are much more popular than Netanyahu. Netanyahu’s choice (again) comes down to placating the far-right to keep his government in power in the short-term at the expense of further alienating the Israeli public. If he bows to this pressure, the far-right might topple his government immediately. All paths probably lead to electoral (then legal) doom for Netanyahu at some point.
I wonder if he’s the kind of maniacal leader that puts maintaining power and control first because he genuinely believes he has a plan to better his people, or…
is he’s the maniacal leader that puts maintaining power and control first because… power and control are simply all that matters…
I wonder which is more dangerous.
I wonder if it matters at this point.
He’s looking at jail time in some corruption cases IIRC
Yup. There was a trial a a year or two ago (maybe three now) before he got into power again. I don’t remember it concluding because he was elected while it was taking place.
It’s still ongoing.