Gantz, Netanyahu close in on emergency unity government, 5 days into war
Politicians meet to hash out details after prolonged delay draws criticism; opposition party head has demanded creation of small war cabinet and a say over war management
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and MK Benny Gantz, an opposition party leader who formerly served as head of the army and as defense minister, appeared Wednesday to be closing in on a deal for an emergency unity government in an effort to shore up security decision-making, after the country was drawn into an unprecedented war with Hamas in the aftermath of the terror group’s shocking slaughter of Israeli civilians on Saturday.
Gantz and Netanyahu met privately for some 30 minutes at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, and then stayed there to hash out details of the eagerly awaited potential deal, which many observers and politicians expected to be reached much earlier than five days into the war.
While some reports indicated that a deal was imminent, the Maariv daily and Channel 12 news reported that Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, was pushing for Gantz not to be allowed into the coalition. Responding to those reports, Sara Netanyahu issued a public statement backing a unity government.
A deal would mark a dramatic, albeit temporary, shift in Israeli political alignments. Previously burned by Netanyahu in a pandemic-era unity government, Gantz has been calling for the prime minister’s ouster, citing his hardline coalition’s embrace of extremists, his ongoing corruption trial, and the coalition’s push to erode judicial checks on the government.
Gantz has been insisting on the formation of a small war cabinet with “real influence” over the management of the war, expected to include at least two opposition politicians with the highest levels of military experience. Both Gantz and fellow National Unity party member Gadi Eisenkot are former Israel Defense Forces chiefs of staff, and Gantz is also a former defense minister.
The party said it was proposing that its representatives be made ministers without portfolios, as opposed to taking new or current cabinet positions, for the duration of the war. It said the war cabinet must include “relevant ministers” chosen by Netanyahu to direct the war against Hamas, an apparent allusion to the exclusion of ministers without military experience such as many of the current far-right and ultra-Orthodox members of the coalition.
Additionally, legislation not connected to the war would not be passed during the tenure of this emergency government, National Unity stipulated, a seeming reference to the government’s highly controversial judicial overhaul agenda.
National Unity has said it would give its full backing to the government and the security forces during the war, regardless of whether it ends up joining it.
Netanyahu reportedly wants to keep the final say in his own hands. The premier on Monday called for forming a unity government “without preconditions,” appearing to reject Gantz’s demand. Later that day National Unity sources indicated that progress had been made and that a deal was likely, but the process was delayed when a Tuesday meeting of coalition heads to approve the unity government carried on until 11 p.m., pushing off Netanyahu’s meeting with Gantz to Wednesday.
The war cabinet is meant to supersede the broader security cabinet, which includes far-right party heads widely considered to be complicating Israel’s security policy vis-à-vis the Palestinians, causing Netanyahu to largely circumvent it thus far during the war.
Hamas’s staggering Saturday terror onslaught, in which hundreds of Israelis were brutally massacred and around 150 were kidnapped to Gaza — the toll has since swelled to over 1,200 dead — prompted immediate calls from both coalition and opposition benches for a unity deal.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid also offered to join an emergency unity government, but preconditioned his offer on sidelining “extremists.” While he did not call them out by name, Lapid was understood to have meant National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Lapid was not a party to the negotiations, nor was the opposition Yisrael Beytenu party head Avigdor Liberman. Liberman, also a former defense minister and a Netanyahu ally-turned-rival, offered to join the government with the precondition of a commitment to destroy Hamas’s presence in Gaza, but was not included in the talks even though the coalition is understood to support the demand in principle.
Many have criticized politicians for the delay in reaching a deal, given the chaotic and deadly security situation.
Ben Gvir and Smotrich both preconditioned their support for any unity deal upon commitments to gut Hamas, in statements seemingly in line with the government’s plans for the terror group, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 and openly seeks Israel’s destruction.
Gantz led his political party, then dubbed Blue and White, into a short-lived Netanyahu-led power-sharing government in May 2020 to tackle the COVID-19 epidemic. He was supposed to become prime minister after 18 months, but the government collapsed before that could happen when Netanyahu refused to approve the state budget, thereby using a loophole in the coalition deal that allowed him to avoid handing Gantz the premiership.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Tuesday, addressing troops on the Gaza border, that he has “released all the restraints, we have [regained] control of the area, and we are moving to a full offense.”
“You will have the ability to change the reality here. You have seen the prices [being paid], and you will get to see the change. Hamas wanted a change in Gaza; it will change 180 degrees from what it thought,” he said.
An Egyptian official told The Times of Israel on Tuesday that Cairo has been informed by Israel that it is readying for a months-long ground campaign in Gaza.
The official said Israel has thus far dismissed Egypt’s efforts to mediate any sort of de-escalation, indicating that it wants to deal a knockout blow to Hamas before entertaining the idea of a ceasefire.
Netanyahu has relied on far-right and Haredi political allies for a ruling coalition, with the center-left and some fellow right-wing parties staunchly opposed to backing him during more peaceful times, in part due to his legal woes.
Some observers have pointed to unprecedented societal divisions wrought by the government’s plans to overhaul the judiciary and attendant protests as having given Hamas the impression that Israel was weakened and ripe for attack.
The Times of Israel Community.