Another Blue and White MK quits, warns Gantz straying from centrist path, endangering change

By Sam Sokol 25 August 2026, 2:21 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

File: MK Yael Ron Ben-Moshe speaks at the launch of the National Unity party campaign for the elections in Tel Aviv, September 6, 2022. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

MK Yael Ron Ben Moshe announces her resignation from Benny Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party, part of a wave of defections that has seen members jump ship to various other opposition factions.

In a lengthy post on Facebook, Ron Ben Moshe says that leaving was “one of the hardest decisions I have ever made in my life” and that while she retains “appreciation and gratitude” for Gantz, she could not continue working with him due to her inability to influence his political direction.

Gantz’s “new path” is no longer the unabashed centrist one “whose goals I identified with and was proud to take part in,” she says, adding that her former ally’s “effort to forge unity is beyond worthy” but that at this time “that effort may not only be in vain, but could even cause harm.”

Ron Ben Moshe specifically calls out the fact that Gantz’s potential partners going forward “would not be willing to join a government that Gadi Eisenkot might seek to establish in order to bring the change the country needs,” which she describes as “an extreme risk and a bright red line.”

Israeli politics is currently divided into two camps, that of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and its associated supporters in the far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties, and the so-called “change bloc” of Zionist opposition factions such as former prime minister Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad and Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar.

Eisenkot left as Gantz’s number two in July 2025 to establish Yashar, which is currently leading in the polls. He was followed by multiple other lawmakers, including Eitan Ginzburg, who joined Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad list, and Chili Tropper, who is now leading the Zionist Home-The Reservists party.

Gantz and Tropper are part of the so-called “Third Bloc” of center-right parties that aim to forcing a compromise between the two larger blocs in order to create a broad Zionist unity government. None of the parties in the Third Bloc, including Blue and White, are currently polling above the electoral threshold.

According to Kan news, Gantz has recently been in contact with Gilad Erdan and Yuli Edelstein’s Unity party, another member of the Third Bloc, regarding a potential merger ahead of the October 27 election. Erdan has said he will not sit in a narrow government led by Eisenkot.