Blue and White leader Benny Gantz announces he will name two senior members of his centrist party as defense and education ministers if he is tasked with forming the next government after the elections tomorrow.
For defense minister, Gantz says he will choose Gabi Ashkenazi, his predecessor as IDF chief of staff. Gantz credits Ashkenazi with having “rehabilitated” the army after the inconclusive 2006 war in Lebanon against the Hezbollah terror group.
“Gabi knew how to restore deterrence and the feeling of security to Israeli citizens in the south, the Gaza periphery, the north, and everywhere in Israel,” Gantz says in a statement.
The Blue and White leader says his choice for education minister will be Moshe Ya’alon, who like Gantz and Ashkenazi also once headed the Israeli military and was later defense minister under Netanyahu.
“A beacon of morals and values and someone who knows how to connect all the segments of Israeli society,” Gantz says of Ya’alon.
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From the Liveblog of
Monday, September 16, 2019
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