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Sunday, July 6, 2025
Matan Kahana formally resigns from Knesset after announcing departure from Gantz’s party
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. 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"
MK Matan Kahana, formerly of Benny Gantz’s National Unity party, submits his official resignation letter to Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana.
Written in the margin of the note is a promise to “continue to work for the unity of the Jewish people.”
Kahana, who represented the right-wing flank of Benny Gantz’s center-right party, announced his resignation from the Knesset last week, less than a day after Gantz’s number two, Gadi Eisenkot, announced his own imminent departure from the faction and the Knesset.
Gantz reverted the name of his party to its previous appellation, Blue and White, following Eisenkot and Kahana’s departure.
Speaking with The Times of Israel ahead of a press conference in Tel Aviv last week, Kahana said that he is in touch with former prime minister Naftali Bennett, whose party he used to be a member of, and will try to broker a political alliance between him and Eisenkot.
Eisenkot submitted his own letter of resignation to Ohana last week.
Eisenkot and Kahana are set to be replaced in the Knesset by Eitan Ginzburg and Yael Ron Ben-Moshe.
The Times of Israel Community.