In his 2019 campaign for the Israeli parliament, Benny Gantz – the man many see as a likely successor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – released a video to show Israelis where he stands on crucial political issues.
Black-and-white images of destruction in Gaza from a campaign he oversaw while army chief of staff coincided with claims of sending the Palestinian enclave “back to the Stone Age.”
“This was his entry into Israeli politics,” Eyal Lurie-Paredes, a non-resident fellow at the Middle East Institute, told Al Jazeera.
“That's just to give you an idea of how he thinks about human rights and Palestinians.”
Heir apparent?
The popularity of Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving leader, is collapsing, while Gantz, who has been branded a centrist, is seen by many Israelis as a figure of reason.
Netanyahu is in trouble.
The prime minister is on trial for corruption, thousands of people are protesting against his government's far-right rule, and he is blamed for failing to stop the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7.
On the other hand, thousands of far-right Israelis – including some in Netanyahu's government – do not believe he has gone far enough in Gaza and are equally dissatisfied.
Internationally, Netanyahu has frustrated his closest allies, particularly US President Joe Biden.
And for those – both domestic and foreign – looking for an alternative, Gantz is an attractive proposition.
After October 7, Gantz left the opposition and joined a national unity government, then joined a three-man war cabinet to lead Israel's assault on Gaza, with Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. .
Gantz, a retired army general, added experience to the cabinet and was a counterweight to far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
While not part of the war cabinet, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are vital members of Netanyahu's coalition government and have hardline views on Gaza, opposing any deal that would end a war in which Israel has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians.
But while Gantz may not hold some of those maximalist positions, the description of him as a “centrist” must be understood within the Israeli context, which has moved firmly to the right – if not to the far right – this century.
“Gantz is a centrist figure in a political [scene] That was so right-wing that it is even difficult to recognize it,” Laurie-Paredes said.
“The Likud party, which has historically been a classic center-right party, has become so right-wing that the center in Israel has changed.”
And while he may be a better interlocutor with the international community, analysts say Gantz would not necessarily change Netanyahu's policies toward Palestinian rights, which had led to a record number of Palestinian killings and the entrenchment of the occupation in West Bank. even before October 7th.
“It is important to emphasize that on many issues… Gantz and Netanyahu do not differ much from each other,” Lurie-Paredes said.
Like Netanyahu, Gantz's record in government (leading two wars in Gaza and designating Palestinian human rights organizations as “terrorist” groups) shows that he is unlikely to improve the situation for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. or change the violent reality of the Israeli occupation. Occupied West Bank. Analysts also say there is little divergence between Netanyahu and Gantz's strategies in Gaza.
If Gantz had been in charge of the Oct. 7 response, the expectation that he would have acted differently from Netanyahu “would be a false estimate,” Laurie-Paredes said. “Especially in the first two months of the war.”
'A very lucky person'
Gantz was born in 1959 in Kfar Ahim, a moshav or agricultural settlement established by Holocaust survivors on the ruins of the Palestinian village of Qastina. His parents were among the first settlers.
He enlisted in the army in 1977 and joined the Parachute Brigade, beginning a long military career that coincided with many of the most tumultuous periods in Israel's history.
He became commander of the Israeli army's ground forces a year before Israel launched a devastating war against Lebanon in 2006, in an attempt to destroy Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
His stay in Lebanon, and before that in the West Bank, was not particularly successful from a military and security point of view. Still, that didn't stop his meteoric rise.
“There are many stories that he was a very lucky person,” Lurie-Paredes said. But he “was never someone who was considered a strong leader.”
In 2007, Gantz was appointed military attaché to the Israeli embassy in the United States, before returning to Israel in 2009 as deputy chief of staff of the army.
He was then promoted to chief of staff in 2011.
In that role, Gantz oversaw two wars against Gaza, in 2012 and 2014. The Israeli military killed 167 Palestinians, including at least 87 civilians, during the first war, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, now more than 2,000. Palestinians (including more than 500 children) during the second, according to Amnesty International.
Human rights organizations documented multiple human rights violations during both military campaigns.
In late 2018, Gantz formed a political party, Israel Resilience, which joined the anti-Netanyahu Blue and White alliance to run in the April 2019 elections.
Then Gantz's campaign video appeared proudly proclaiming that parts of Gaza were “returned to the Stone Age.” But it was not enough to initially bring him to power.
A divided Israeli electorate led to three elections in the space of a year, eventually leading to a deal in May 2020 between Gantz and Netanyahu, and a coalition government in which the former general became defense minister and the promise that Netanyahu would hand over the position of prime minister in October 2021.
It was not to last long, with the government collapsing in early 2021 and a new election in which Netanyahu was ousted from power, but support for Gantz's party also collapsed.
His time as Defense Minister was deadly for the Palestinians.
Gantz oversaw two more wars in Gaza, in May 2021 and August 2023. More than 300 people were killed, including at least 130 civilians, 17 of whom were children.
And in the occupied West Bank, dozens of Palestinians were killed during that period.
“This history of violence is widely overlooked by many observers, who once saw Gantz as a worthy candidate to replace Netanyahu as prime minister,” Palestinian analyst Amjad Iraqi wrote in +972 magazine.
“[T]The general-turned-politician has sought to create an image of himself as a statesman… It's a stance that has worked well for many Israeli voters and foreign dignitaries, with some even praising Gantz as a “centrist” counterweight to the far right. . parties.”
Gantz makes his move
Calls for Gantz to replace Netanyahu have waxed and waned in recent months.
Many Israelis see Gantz as the best hope for returning the remaining Israeli captives taken by Palestinian armed groups during their October 7 attack, something Netanyahu has refused to do.
In March, Gantz traveled to Washington, D.C., prompting analysts to note that U.S. frustrations with Netanyahu could work in Gantz's favor.
“From its earliest days, the Biden administration has considered Benny Gantz as its main ally in Israeli politics,” Tamir Sorek, a history professor who studies conflict and resistance at Penn State University, told Al Jazeera at the time.
But the trip passed without major changes in the Israeli government, nor did Gantz make any power moves.
Gantz, Sorek told Al Jazeera, does not have much influence in Israel because “Netanyahu does not need him for his coalition, so he does not have the same influence that far-right parties have.”
However, on May 19, Gantz made his boldest move yet.
In a widely publicized speech, Gantz said Israel was “heading toward the rocks” led by a group of “fanatics” and placed the blame on Netanyahu.
He gave the government a deadline of June 8 to meet six specific goals, including bringing home hostages held by Hamas, returning Israelis to their homes in northern Israel and gaining security control of the Strip. from Gaza.
If not, he threatened that his party would leave the government.
But Gantz's luck may have finally reached its limit.
“Although his party is still the largest in the polls, it doesn't really have a political bloc to form a coalition,” Laurie-Paredes said, indicating that Netanyahu could possibly survive Gantz's departure.
“What we have seen is that Netanyahu has managed to recover strong enough [to form a veto bloc].”
