Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz is new to Israeli politics. He has been at it for less than a year, and yet in this short time, he’s already been through two election campaigns. As head of the Blue and White party, he has also managed to position himself as that party’s natural candidate for prime minister.

This is no mean feat. On his way to achieving this objective, he not only had to come out unscathed from an ugly campaign of personal attacks by the Likud and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He also had to overcome the skepticism voiced behind his back by his fellow members of the Blue and White leadership. The climax came in the April election campaign when the No. 4 person on the party’s list, former Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, said in an interview with Channel 12 that he will have “a hand on the steering wheel.” In other words, he will be supervising Gantz. It was obvious what he was insinuating. Gantz wasn’t happy to hear it, and that’s putting it lightly. Ashkenazi is eying the prime minister’s office for himself, just as is the No. 2 person on the list, Yair Lapid. These voices of skepticism died down after Blue and White’s achievement in the April election when it won 35 seats. They died down even more after the September election when Blue and White became the biggest party in the Knesset.

Gantz is now the most powerful brand in the Blue and White party. Neither Ashkenazi nor Lapid can challenge that position. Nor can anyone else in the party. His character, restrained style and the experience that he is starting to accumulate in the political arena have all turned him into a powerful player. Right now, he holds the mandate to form a government. He is the one who attends negotiations with Netanyahu — just him, one on one, without his No. 2, Yair Lapid, and without Ashkenazi’s “hand on the steering wheel.” In this sense, he is very different from Labor-Gesher party Chairman Amir Peretz, for example. Peretz shows up to negotiations with Gantz with his No. 2, Orly Levy-Abekasis, right beside him.

Senior members of Blue and White have no way of knowing what is really being said in those meetings between Gantz and Netanyahu. They know nothing about the dynamics, nor do they know about the nuances of the discussions. True, Gantz updates them. But he focuses on giving them a picture at a certain resolution, while other resolutions of the same picture remain in the room. That is why when Gantz spoke with the press after his meeting with Netanyahu at the Ministry of Defense on the evening of Oct. 27, even the most senior members of Blue and White listened very attentively. It sounded like Gantz was breathing new life into the coalition talks. “I’ll continue with all efforts to form a unity government and to prevent third elections for the State of Israel,” said Gantz. He described the meeting as “businesslike” and added that there will be further meetings in the future.