Gantz slams Netanyahu for 'chaos' in Israeli political crisis
The decision by Defense Minister Benny Gantz to open an inquiry into the submarine affair, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu excluding Gantz on the trip to Saudi Arabia, brings the political crisis to an unprecedented point.
“The state is on the backburner today because [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is busy with other issues. Netanyahu thinks first and foremost about his trial. Yalla (Let’s go) Fauda!” That was the main headline of Monday’s edition of Yedioth Ahronot. It was a direct quote from Minister of Defense and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz.
It was not by chance that the former chief of staff chose to use the term “Fauda” — Arabic for "chaos" and the name of the most successful Israeli TV series in the world. “Fauda” was the code word used by the Israel Defense Force’s Mista’arvim unit (the undercover counterterrorism unit) operating in the West Bank when locals discovered them. At the advice of his media consultants, Gantz used the term in an attempt to show a more aggressive attitude toward Netanyahu, believing that this might help him win back voters who abandoned him for joining forces with Netanyahu in the first place.
