Gantz says Israel’s full withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 was a ‘mistake’
Speaking at West Bank confab, National Unity party leader expresses support security control over entire Strip, but rejects re-building settlements there
National Unity party chief Benny Gantz said Tuesday that Israel should not have fully withdrawn from Gaza in 2005, and that the notions of further Israeli withdrawals or Palestinian statehood were “disconnected from the security reality.”
Gantz, a former IDF chief and defense minister who leads one of four Zionist opposition parties, made the comments in a speech in the West Bank settlement of Ofra, during a “Settlements Conference” organized by National Religious newspaper Makor Rishon.
The comments came a day after Israel announced it would begin seizing territory in Gaza. Gantz, who joined the government days after the Gaza war began with the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, said he had advocated for Israel to seize land in the Strip in one of his first cabinet sessions, to create a buffer zone with the Palestinian territory.
Though he re-joined the opposition in June amid disagreements with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the conduct of the war, Gantz said entering the government had been “the most important and most correct decision I’ve made in political life,” and that he would not apologize to critics of the move.
Speaking about the 2005 Gaza Disengagement plan, under which Israel unilaterally dismantled all its settlements in the Strip and evacuated some 8,500 residents, Gantz said that the process was marred by “lots of problems.”
“The biggest mistake, in my opinion, was evacuating the northern settlements of Dugit, Nissanit, and Elei Sinai,” said Gantz, who was chief of the IDF Northern Command at the time of the Disengagement.
“We should have stayed there in order to control the territory,” Gantz said. “But principally there was a need to remain there in order to inform the world that the ’67 lines are irrelevant,” he added, referring to Israel’s borders before the Six Day War of June 1967, when the country captured from Jordan territories currently claimed by the Palestinians for a future state, including the Gaza Strip.
He said he supports establishing security control of the Strip, but that rebuilding settlements there “would be a mistake defense-wise, and would also divide the nation at a time when we need unity.”
“The State of Israel cannot allow a direct and substantive threat to its citizens on all its borders,” said Gantz. “Therefore, [it] needs security control and to preserve freedom of action in Gaza, the West Bank, southern Lebanon, and in the border region with Syria”
“The implication is clear, and anyone who talks about a Palestinian state or withdrawals is simply disconnected from the security reality,” he added.
Gantz’s rejection of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict drew criticism from left-wing politicians. The Democrats MK Gilad Kariv wrote on social media that “after October 7, the idea that it is possible to ignore the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and not offer any diplomatic path is even more disconnected from reality.”
He added that there was “a need to present an alternative of renewing the diplomatic dialogue between Jerusalem and Ramallah within the framework of a regional pact and under an international umbrella.”
Gantz, who entered politics in 2018, three years after he retired as IDF chief of staff, has previously expressed support for a “two-entity solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As defense minister in 2021, he met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas — the first such meeting in years — and reportedly told him that he wants to be a “new Rabin,” referring to prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated for pursuing a two-state solution.
Opinion polls early in the current Gaza war positioned Gantz as a leading candidate for prime minister, rewarding his ostensible statesmanship in joining the government days after thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
Gantz’s lead in polls has since deflated. More recent surveys show him losing many voters to a potential party led by former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who has consistently rejected Palestinian statehood.
The Times of Israel Community.