The diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinians has been at a standstill ever since the John Kerry talks in 2014. It certainly wasn’t a major issue in Israel’s recent election campaign. All that was left to discuss was the long-delayed Donald Trump peace plan, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took advantage of that claiming only he could withstand the pressure from Washington. On the other hand, since nothing is actually known about the plan, the “deal of the century” never became a bone of contention, subject to debate between the parties.

In contrast, the problem of rockets being fired from the Gaza Strip was a common mantra throughout the campaign, creating all sorts of surprising alliances. The right complained that on the one hand, Netanyahu was handling Hamas with kid gloves and allowing the Qatari representative to bring his monthly payments into Gaza, but that on the other hand, the prime minister would not approve a military operation to defeat Hamas (the branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza) and Islamic Jihad (Iran’s franchise in Gaza), out of concern that a military clash would result in numerous Israeli casualties and might even force Israel to remain in Gaza once it was reoccupied. Blue and White leader Benny Gantz and Yisrael Beitenu head Avigdor Liberman both aligned themselves with the right in this criticism of Netanyahu.

Gantz was chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza  in 2014. In his April election campaign, he prided himself that under his command, the IDF was responsible for numerous Palestinian casualties, and claimed that the operation he oversaw granted Israel several years of quiet. Now he claims that it is impossible to accept the level of violence from the Gaza Strip targeting Israel, and that the situation should be resolved through deterrence, or through a military action that would result in a deterrence.

Liberman bore the burden of an interview he gave in May 2016, in which he claimed that if he was appointed minister of defense, he would give head of Hamas political bureau Ismail Haniyeh an ultimatum: Release the Israelis that he is holding (Israeli citizens held by the group and also the bodies of two IDF soldiers) within 48 hours or face assassination. Much to everyone’s surprise, he was appointed defense minister two days later and never repeated his ultimatum again. Sometime later, he even admitted that there was no basis for his threat. On the other hand, ever since his resignation as defense minister in November 2018, he has been accusing Netanyahu of preventing him from launching a comprehensive military operation in the Gaza Strip.