It was September 2018, when Benny Gantz announced that he would be entering the political fray. His decision gave new life to the Israeli center-left. Gantz brought with him the aura of a former chief of staff. He was the leader that people were waiting for: someone who could finally end Benjamin Netanyahu’s long tenure in the prime minister’s office. Many compared him to former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, another chief of staff who decided to enter politics. Then, in 1999, Barak defeated Netanyahu at the ballot box. Barak made his entry into politics by way of the Labor party. After a brief period as a Knesset member and minister, he was elected head of the party by a huge majority, and levered that position to win the election.

By 2018, the polls were hardly flattering for the Labor party. Then Gantz appeared, and it felt as if a new messiah was finally on his way. Netanyahu announced a new election toward the end of that year, so the Labor party leadership sent a slew of messages to Gantz, asking him to join them. It was a tempting offer. He would leapfrog over the other contenders and immediately become party leader.

But Gantz chose another path. He preferred to launch a new party, unencumbered by a veteran party establishment, a central committee, and a party membership with inordinate influence. His first original party was called Israel Resilience, later to merge with two other parties and form Blue and White.

Labor never became part of Blue and White. Only now does it seem like Gantz and his Blue and White party are about to consolidate with Labor. On April 6, Gantz and Labor party chairman Amir Peretz announced that they were taking the initial steps to merge their two parties. This followed Peretz’s announcement that he was dissolving the Labor party’s alliance with the left-wing Meretz party, an alliance of convenience made right before the March election.