‘Do the right thing’: Golan joins opposition figures telling Gantz not to run next year

Yair Golan, chair of the left-wing Democrats party, says that fellow opposition party leader Benny Gantz should not run in the election due to take place next year if his centrist Blue and White party continues to poll poorly, adding his voice to a growing chorus of opposition figures making the same call.

“Benny Gantz has said on countless occasions that the State of Israel comes before everything else. For many months now [Blue and White] has not been passing the electoral threshold,” Golan says during a radio interview today, according to Hebrew media reports. Coming in below the electoral threshold means a party gets no Knesset seats, and the votes it won are effectively wasted.

“I expect him to do the right thing and — if this situation continues — retire from political life,” he continues.

In response to his comments, Gantz’s Blue and White party says that Golan’s “support for those who refuse to serve, the hatred and division he spreads, and his obsessive focus on others are the greatest gift there is to [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s campaign.”

Other opposition politicians, including Yesh Atid’s Noam Tibon and Gantz’s former number two, Gadi Eisenkot, have also called on the Blue and White leader to resign due to his poor poll numbers. Eisenkot now leads his own eponymous party.

Gantz himself has responded to the calls for his resignation with indignation, demanding to know why opposition figures see him as part of their bloc. That stance marks a shift for Gantz, who, six years ago, was the leading challenger to Netanyahu across a series of elections.

Since then, he has joined Netanyahu-led governments multiple times, first during the coronavirus pandemic and later following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught.

Now, Gantz hasn’t expressly stated that he won’t join a government led by Netanyahu.