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Is Israel's Gantz crafting his political demise or a new beginning?

Even if Blue and White's Benny Gantz fails in his attempt to form the next Israeli government, he could emerge from the effort looking like the adult in the room and the person who put the interest of the state above his own.
Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz seen during election campaign in Ramat Gan on February 25.
After 99 percent of votes counted, right-wing bloc led by Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu obtained 58 seats but 3 are missing to get a clear majority.
Israeli PM Netanyahu says today that Gantz is 'linking up with terrorists' supporters' alluding at possible union with Arab Alliance Joint List.
On Wednesday, March 4, 2020, in Jerusalem, Israel. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“Benny, it is clear that your genuine willingness to join an emergency government faces the cynical deceitfulness of a defendant trying to avoid a trial. If you agree to his terms for the consolidation of his rule, placing him above the law, you will betray the principles that united us. It is not too late to compensate for losing your direction.” Moshe Ya’alon, former military chief of staff and defense minister, tweeted this personal appeal to Blue and White leader Benny Gantz on April 13 in light of renewed negotiations between Gantz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on forming a power-sharing emergency government. It was Ya’alon's way of telling Gantz that he can still change his mind about fracturing Blue and White and abandoning the anti-Netanyahu alliance.

Gantz is unlikely to do an about-face and attempt to reunite the alliance, which fell apart in one stormy moment on March 29 when he decided to join a Netanyahu-led government. For now, Ya’alon and Yair Lapid, Gantz's former leadership colleagues in Blue and White, appear to have been right. They broke from Gantz, taking with them 16 Knesset members, about half of Blue and White's original 33 seats, warning him that he would fall victim to Netanyahu’s manipulations and become yet another statistic on the prime minister’s political hit list. Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Liberman warned Gantz that a coalition with Netanyahu would signal the end of his political career, calling the former army chief a political rookie.

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