Israel’s former military chief Benny Gantz will officially launch his election campaign on Tuesday. Opinion polls suggest he is the only credible challenger to the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, despite having revealed almost none of his political beliefs.
Gantz, 59, moved himself into politics in December and polls signal that his new party, Israel Resilience, could win a critical number of seats in the 9 April general election.
At his maiden campaign rally in Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening, Gantz will criticise Netanyahu’s government as corrupt and divisive, according to a leaked draft of his speech seen by local media.
The retired general has already created a buzz among an electorate that analysts say often votes on personality rather than policy and has a strong penchant for military credentials.
Israel Resilience released a jingle on Tuesday with the slogan “there is no more right and left, there is only Israel before everything”, suggesting Gantz will seek alliances with both sides in a political system favouring coalition governments.
Gantz, who was head of the army from 2011 to 2015, including during two wars in Gaza, has sought to appease Israel’s militaristic right wing. A short clip released by his party this month showed a bomb-flattened neighbourhood in Gaza after the 2014 war he led against the strip’s rulers, Hamas.
“Only the strong wins,” reads text on the video, which says Israel killed more than 1,364 terrorists and destroyed 6,231 targets in the war. According to a scathing United Nations investigation, more than 2,200 Palestinians were killed in the 50-day conflict, more than half of them civilians, contradicting Gantz’s figures. Seventy-three people, the vast majority of them military personnel, died on the Israeli side.
Army service is compulsory in Israel and the country has a tradition of senior military figures entering politics. Two chiefs of staff have become prime ministers: Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak.
Gantz is seen as a serious contender to threaten Netanyahu’s reputation as “Mr Security”, a nickname the prime minister’s supporters use. But Netanyahu’s allies have written off Gantz as a “leftist” and will seek to highlight any signs of restraint from him on Israel’s myriad security challenges.
In another campaign video, Gantz says there is “no shame in yearning for peace”, although he adds that Israeli soldiers will probably be fighting for the next 50 years.
Orit Galili-Zucker, who has advised both Netanyahu and his rivals on political communications, said Gantz was adopting a strategy of ambiguity to try to woo rightwing and centre-left voters. “The reason why polls are high for Gantz is because he brings something new, he is shaking the political arena,” she said.
Netanyahu is the second longest-serving premier in the country’s history, having won four general elections since 1996. He remains the top contender by far to gather the most seats in the 120-seat Knesset and form a coalition.
Polls suggest his Likud party will take around 30 seats in April, with Gantz’s Resilience party second on 15. Netanyahu would then need to make an alliance, possibly including with Gantz who could be offered a conciliatory ministerial position, to form a 61-seat majority government.
However, one of Netanyahu’s biggest election hurdles is a slew of corruption charges. In three cases, police have recommended he be indicted for bribery. Israel’s attorney general is expected to announce his decision on whether to charge Netanyahu before election day. The premier would not be required to step down if indicted.
Despite the allegations, which he rejects as a “witch-hunt”, Netanyahu has held on to power through deals with ultra-nationalists and religious parties.
Comments