Israel between far-right coalition and Gaza cease-fire

[Pelican Press 0]

******* between far-right coalition and Gaza cease-*****

Benny Gantz, a member of the country’s wartime cabinet, departs after announcing his resignation during a press conference on June 9, 2024.

Amir Levy | Getty Images News | Getty Images

*******’s war cabinet minister Benny Gantz resigned from the emergency government, dealing a decisive ***** which is expected to entrench Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deeper into a far-right support base that opposes a cease-***** in Gaza.

A former chief of staff of the ******** Defense Forces, centrist Gantz co-founded and led the National Unity party that joined Netanyahu’s emergency government after the outbreak of the Gaza war. He withdrew his party from the coalition after Netanyahu missed a June 8 deadline to present a concrete plan for the Gaza enclave’s post-war governance.

Netanyahu has previously floated “day-after” provisions for the Gaza Strip that included *******’s “responsibility of overall security” of the territory and a stalwart rejection of splintering it into a separate ************ state.

Gantz announced his resignation on Sunday, just as Netanyahu celebrated the rare rescue of four hostages taken captive during the Oct. 7 ******* ******* perpetrated by ************ militant group ******, which triggered *******’s retaliatory Gaza campaign.

******** prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Cabinet minister Benny Gantz during a press conference in the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv , ******* , 28 October 2023. 

Pool | Via Reuters

“Regrettably, Netanyahu is preventing us from advancing toward true victory, which is the justification for the ongoing and painful cost (for war). That is why we are leaving the emergency government today, with a heavy heart but with full confidence,” Gantz said, according to Reuters-translated video footage.

“I was very privileged, together with my friends, to bring to the cabinet room all the experience we had. I know other people are staying there. Mainly, you have [Defense Minister Yoav] Gallant. And the prime minister himself. They know what should be done. Hopefully, they will stick to what should be done – then it will be OK,” Gantz added.

On Saturday, Netanyahu had

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to entreat Gantz to remain in the emergency government, stressing “this is the time for unity and not for division,” according to a

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translation.

Current opposition leader Yair Lapid welcomed the decision of Gantz and of his ally Gadi Eisenkot to leave the emergency government as “important and right.”

“The time has come to replace this extreme and promiscuous government with a sane government that will lead to the return of security to the citizens of *******, to the return of the abducted, to the restoration of *******’s economy and international status,” Lapid said in a

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-translated

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.

Gantz’s withdrawal comes at a tenuous time for Netanyahu’s government, which faces rising domestic discontent over the war management and efforts to retrieve the dozens of hostages that are believed to remain in captivity in the Gaza Strip. ******* has also drawn international criticism over the proportionality of its military response and the risk to ************ civilians — including an order from the U.N.’s top court to halt the war campaign in Rafah and an application from an International ********* Court prosecutor seeking arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Gallant, and three ****** leaders over accusations linked to the Gaza conflict.

Around 1,200 people were ******* in *******, ******** official figures say, since the start of the Gaza conflict. The ****** toll in the enclave has crossed 37,000 over that *******, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

Gantz’s seismic departure will rattle, but not uproot the administration of Netanyahu. Eran Etzion, former deputy head of *******’s National Security Council, told CNBC on Monday that the ******** prime minister can reposition back in his coalition of far-right support and ultra-Orthodox parties.

“To cling to power, Netanyahu will continue to maneuver between his base, and US demands. The pro democracy movement will also increase its pressure in the streets. And the highly unpopular ‘draft law,’ effectively granting all Ultra Orthodox men full exemption from military service, is also expected to increase the de legitimization of the government,” Etzion said.

******** Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference at the Sheba Tel-HaShomer Medical Centre, in Ramat Gan on June 8, 2024 amid the ongoing conflict in the ************ territory between ******* and the militant group ******.

Jack Guez | Afp | Getty Images

Nimrod Goren, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, meanwhile stressed to CNBC that Netanyahu is unlikely to go against his far-right coalition partners at this juncture, weakening the odds that ******* will ultimately endorse a cease-***** proposal in the Gaza Strip, such as the three-phase plan aired publicly by the U.S. last month.  

“Gantz’s resignation lowers the chances that Netanyahu will agree to a deal necessitating a significant halt of IDF operations in Gaza and the release of a large number of ************ prisoners,” Goren said.

Far-right politicians have already lashed out against the framework, with Itamar Ben-Gvir, national security minister and leader of the far-right ******* Power Party, qualifying it as “a promiscuous deal, which is a victory for terrorism and a security danger to the State of *******” in a

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. He further threatened to dissolve the government, if the proposal is implemented.

Bezalel Smotrich, finance minister and head of the Religious Zionist Party, likewise said that he would “not be part of a government that will agree to the proposed outline and end the war without destroying ****** and returning all the abductees,” according to a

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But Etzion said that Gantz’s departure will not tip the scales on the cease-***** proposal.

“Gantz’s position on the deal was effectively identical to Netanyahu’s,” he said, noting that Gantz and Lapid have assured they will support the proposition from their ranks. “The deal was and is up to Netanyahu to decide. He can garner a majority to whichever decision he wants to make. This was true when Gantz was in, and it’s true when he is out.”

CNBC has reached out for comment to the ******** Prime Minister’s Office.

— CNBC’s Dalya Al Masri contributed to this report.

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