Thus spoke Gantz: 9 things to know for January 30

1. The anti-Bibi: Benny Gantz broke his political science Tuesday, and though he did not directly attack Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he is still being seen as the ultimate anti-Netanyahu candidate.

• Cheering for Gantz by a raucous crowd at the Tel Aviv Exhibition Center even before he gave his speech or set forth any policy platforms made him “the ultimate anybody but Bibi candidate,” as one journalist quipped on Twitter.
• Gantz barely mentioned Netanyahu by name in his speech, except to thank him and tell him is time is up, but pundits see his speech as a clarion call for the end of the Bibi era.
• “Make no mistake. The former IDF chief of staff, appointed to that post by none other than Netanyahu eight years ago, had most definitely come to bury the prime minister, not to praise him,” writes ToI editor David Horovitz.
• “The alternative took the stage at the Tel Aviv Convention Center, looked Benjamin Netanyahu in the eye and didn’t lower his gaze. For the first time in a decade, the opposition has someone with authority and military experience — the issue that has hitherto given Netanyahu his decisive advantage over his rivals — to run against the prime minister,” Haaretz editor Aluf Benn says.

2. Media circus: The press has gleefully joined in the excitement around Gantz’s campaign speech, with Israel’s main TV broadcasts giving him some 20 minutes of unfiltered coverage at prime time (and weeks after complaining bitterly about doing the same for Netanyahu in the “dramatic announcement” debacle.)’

• On Wednesday morning, his face is plastered on the front page of every major newspaper, and by late Wednesday morning, stories about him are still leading pretty much every major news website.

3. Betting on Benny: Much of the coverage of Gantz is fawning, or at least bullish on the candidate, who is seen as having the best chance of unseating Netanyahu in years.

• “There was something we haven’t heard in a while in Gantz’s speech. It had a good atmosphere,” Yedioth Ahronoth’s Sima Kadmon gushes. “After long weeks of poisoning, cynical, hopeless speeches, in which we never knew when the insults, slander or excitement will start — we were reminded last night how things can look and sound different.”
• Haaretz’s Noa Landau calls the address as “a first, serious, detailed speech in which Gantz laid out a clear world view on most topics of importance.”
• “Gantz described a worldview of a liberal Likudnik of days gone by, someone who puts defense in the forefront, but who is also extending his hand in peace, who is not afraid to speak about values like equality and separation of religion and state to the extent possible,” she writes.

4. A man for … something: Reporting from the event hall, ToI’s Raoul Wootliff tries to get inside the heads of supporters excited about a candidate they know little about.

• “He’s offering something new,” a party activist named Iddo tells him. Asked what, Iddo was stumped. “Well, lots of things. A new vision, a new direction… I think,” he said.
• Another supporter says Gantz “will be able to lead the country properly because he has the experience and the know-how.” Asked where he will lead it, she says only “to a better place.”
• Many are also not sure who to compare Gantz to. Yedioth’s Nahum Barnea writes that his charisma reminded some of Bill Clinton.
• Channel 13 reporter Barak Ravid tweets that “This isn’t Benny Gantz. It’s Yitzhak Rabin.”
• Netanyahu, meanwhile, responds to the speech by calling him “another [Yair] Lapid.”

5. No substance: Pro-Netanyahu Israel Hayom gets right to work attacking Gantz for his platitudes and lack of actual policy, mocking the former general as “left, right, left” for his chimeric pronouncements.

• “His first speech was supposed to clear the fog that has blanketed his central stances, but the fog remains in place even after he finished speaking, thick and smothering as always,” the paper’s Mati Tuchfeld writes.
• “I wasn’t disappointed in the speech because I had no expectations for it,” columnist Haim Shine writes, calling the address full of “empty slogans.”
• Channel 13’s Seffi Ovadia is also underwhelmed by the speech: “Gantz didn’t present any actual plan. This is a political speech full of slogans and opposition to Netanyahu. Everyone could hear what they wanted.”
• “Gantz didn’t present a vision for Israel’s future. Most likely he doesn’t have one. It just needs to get rid of that patriotic but corrupt and divisive Netanyahu and his ugly politics and it will be even stronger,” writes Anshel Pfeffer in Haaretz.

6. Left behind: Nonetheless, many see Gantz as the unparalleled leader of the anti-Netanyahu camp now, with not just Netanyahu, but Avi Gabbay, Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni shunted to the side.

• “He’s impressive enough that if he doesn’t mess up, everyone between Netanyahu and Gabbay has reason to be worried,” journalist Yair Tarchitsky writes.
• Hadashot news’s Dana Weiss writes that Lapid in particular is stuck. “He can’t attack him, he doesn’t want to join him, and he doesn’t have time to defeat him using his experience. Ironically, his only hope is that Netanyahu and Naftali Bennett do the work for him and manage to portray Gantz and Moshe Ya’alon as leftists, leaving Lapid to compete for the votes on the soft right that don’t want Netanyahu but haven’t found a replacement.”

7. States of play: Portraying Ya’alon as a leftist may be a challenge.

• Asked by ToI as he left the Tel Aviv expo center whether he supports a two-state solution, he answered, “Of course not.”
• Gantz has also never explicitly endorsed two states, though in his speech he did speak about striving for peace and separating from the Palestinians.

8. General overload: Gantz and Ya’alon’s political marriage is seen as the first of a series of upcoming moves before tickets must be finalized next month, with another ex-IDF chief, Gabi Ashkenazi, rumored to be next to join in.

• Speaking to the Washington Post, Israel Democracy Institute head Yohanan Plesner warns that too many generals can ruin the stew, with military men often seen as ineffective political leaders.
• “It’s an impediment that Mr. Gantz has to deal with,” Plesner says. “On the other hand, they do come with the most important credential for someone that aspires to national leadership, which is that they have confidence to debate and decide on security questions, which are still considered the most important questions.”
• He should know. Plesner’s last stint in the Knesset was under Shaul Mofaz, another former IDF chief of staff.
• Walla news’s Amir Oren also scratches his head at the union with Ya’alon and two other former Netanyahu appointees who had already joined up with the former defense minister.
• “Not a Trojan horse, but a whole stable of Likudniks who quarreled with Netanyahu personally, not ideologically. It’s clear Ya’alon and his underlings want to get under the huppah. What does Gantz get from this? Less than nothing,” he writes.

9. Fun fact about Gabi Ashkenazi: Despite being totally Israeli, his son Itay Ashkenazi used to be a quarterback in Israel’s fledgling American football league and coached the country’s first high school football team in Kfar Saba.

• Most Israelis, however, wouldn’t know Ndamukong Suh if he pancaked them in the face, as this video from the Jewish Agency proves, though many will stay up to the wee hours of the morning next week to watch the Super Bowl and root against the Patriots.

• (Actually, Patriots owner Bob Kraft is a big donor to Israeli causes, so Israel might be the only place outside of Boston where people actually root for the Pats.)
• Don’t worry Israelis, some of the smartest Americans are also clueless when it comes to the only football worth caring about.