Still fighting Israel’s external enemies on multiple fronts, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu woke up Monday to a new political battlefield at home.
The departure this weekend of Benny Gantz and his centrist National Unity party from Israel’s wartime emergency government is unlikely to immediately break Netanyahu’s grip on power. The prime minister’s governing coalition still has a slim 64-seat majority in the 120-seat parliament.
But Gantz’s move means Netanyahu is now entirely reliant on his far-right and ultra-Orthodox coalition partners as he pursues the war in Gaza in the face of growing international opprobrium, leaving him increasingly isolated and exposed at home and abroad.
Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, another powerful member of National Unity, also left Netanyahu’s small war cabinet. Both are former military chiefs who were widely seen as key voices of moderation in the five-member body, which was formed in October after the Hamas-led attack on Israel sparked the Israeli bombing and ground invasion of Gaza.
The two centrist politicians increased public confidence in the government’s decision-making process at a time of national trauma. They also gave the war cabinet an aura of legitimacy and consensus as Israel fought Hamas in Gaza, as well as its archenemy Iran and its other proxies, including the powerful Hezbollah militia on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.
Gantz accused Netanyahu of “political procrastination,” suggesting he had been putting off critical strategic decisions to ensure his political survival. His decision to leave the wartime government marks the beginning of a new period of political instability and left many Israelis wondering where the country goes from here.
Describing the political shakeup as “incredibly momentous,” Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Jerusalem, said in a statement that Israelis had already been giving the government poor marks on a number of issues related to wartime. . That included handling the fighting and relations with the United States, Israel’s crucial ally, he said.
“With Gantz gone, I expect those ratings to be even lower,” Plesner said.
Gantz had issued an ultimatum three weeks ago, warning Netanyahu that he would dissolve the emergency government unless the prime minister presented clear plans, including who would replace Hamas as ruler of a post-war Gaza and how to take it back. the dozens of hostages still held in the Palestinian enclave.
Gantz joined the government last October to foster a sense of unity in times of crisis. He joined forces with his political rival, Netanyahu, despite a deep lack of trust between them and a history of betrayal. The last time Gantz entered a government with Netanyahu, in 2020, it also ended badly after Netanyahu broke their power-sharing agreement. The influence of Gantz and Eisenkot, whose son, a soldier, was killed in December while fighting in Gaza, has waned in recent months, leading many Israelis to question why they had not abandoned the emergency government and joined before the opposition. Gantz has called for early elections this fall.
Netanyahu’s formal partners who remain in the war cabinet are his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, a rival within his conservative Likud party whom Netanyahu tried to fire last year; and Ron Dermer, a seasoned Netanyahu confidant with more diplomatic than political experience. It is not clear if it will continue to work.
A separate, larger security cabinet includes two leaders of ultranationalist parties: Itamar Ben-Gvir, minister of national security, and Bezalel Smotrich, minister of finance. Both want to resettle Gaza with Israelis.
Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have vowed to overthrow Netanyahu’s government if it proceeds with an Israeli proposal for a deal that includes a truce and a hostage exchange for Palestinian prisoners, which, as President Biden described in a letter a week ago, would put effectively ended the war.