For Netanyahu, his govt's survival more important than captives: Gantz

from al Mayadeen English

For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the survival of his government is more important than the return of the captives held in Gaza, indicated Benny Gantz, the leader of the Israeli National Unity Party.

“Of the three goals of the war that concern the Gaza Strip, two have not yet been achieved – the collapse of Hamas’s rule and the return of our hostages,” Gantz said at a conference organized by the Calcalist financial daily.

He explained that it is more important for Netanyahu "to survive politically than to allow another civilian government in the Gaza Strip," and therefore the Israeli military "will continue to wallow there for a long time."...

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Netanyahu should retire, not run for re-election: Survey

from Daily Sabah

A majority of the people in Israel think Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should retire and not run for re-election, a survey published on Friday said.

The poll was conducted by the Israeli private Channel 12 which showed 66% of respondents want Netanyahu, 74, to retire and not run for a seventh term as prime minister.

Only 27% of respondents support him staying in power and running for a new term.

Another poll by the Maariv newspaper had Benny Gantz, who heads the National Unity Party, beating Netanyahu for the prime minister post...

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Netanyahu disbands his inner war cabinet

(Why should he keep the war cabinet when its the U.S. telling him what to do?)

from Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved the six-member war cabinet, an Israeli official said on Monday, in a widely expected move that came after the departure from government of the centrist former general Benny Gantz.

Netanyahu is now expected to hold consultations about the Gaza war with a small group of ministers, including Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer who had been in the war cabinet.

 

The prime minister had faced demands from the nationalist-religious partners in his coalition, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, to be included in the war cabinet, a move which would have intensified strains with international partners including the United States...

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Israeli polls show Netanyahu party narrowing gap behind Gantz

(According to recent polling, Hamas is gaining support among Palestinians and Bibi and Likud would lose to both Gantz and Naftali Bennett if this conflict ended today and snap elections were held tomorrow.)

from Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right wing Likud party has reduced the gap behind the centrist party of former minister Benny Gantz, who quit the wartime unity government on Sunday, two polls showed on Friday.

The polls, for the left wing Ma'ariv daily and the right wing Israel Hayom newspaper, showed Likud winning 21 seats behind the National Unity Party on 24. The Ma'ariv poll last week showed Gantz's party on 27 seats, while at the start of the year, it was regularly polling in the high 30s.

 

The Ma'ariv poll shows the current ruling coalition winning 52 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, against 58 for the main opposition parties, with the balance of 10 seats held by the United Arab List and the left-wing Hadash-Ta'al alliance.

 

The Israel Hayom poll put the coalition on 50 seats against 61 for the opposition parties and 9 for the UAL and Hadash-Ta'al.

 

Both polls showed a majority of voters would prefer Gantz as prime minister in a head-to-head choice with Netanyahu. However the Israel Hayom poll showed that if former prime minister Naftali Bennett were to join forces with Avigdor Liberman and Gideon Saar, two other centre right politicians from outside the Likud camp, their alliance could beat both Likud and Gantz's National Unity Party...

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As His Political Alliance Breaks Up, Netanyahu Faces a Battle at Home

from the New York Times

Still fighting Israel’s outside enemies on multiple fronts, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu woke up on Monday to a new political battlefield at home.

The departure this weekend of Benny Gantz and his centrist National Unity party from Israel’s emergency wartime government is unlikely to immediately sever Mr. Netanyahu’s grip on power. The prime minister’s governing coalition still commands a narrow majority of 64 seats in the 120-seat Parliament.

But Mr. Gantz’s move means that Mr. Netanyahu is now totally dependent on his far right and ultra-Orthodox coalition partners as he prosecutes the war in Gaza in the face of mounting international opprobrium, leaving him increasingly isolated and exposed at home and abroad.

Mr. Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, another powerful member of National Unity, also left Mr. Netanyahu’s small war cabinet. They are both former military chiefs who were widely viewed as key voices of moderation in the five-member body, which was formed in October after the Hamas-led assault on Israel prompted the Israeli bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza...

Describing the political shake-up as “incredibly consequential,” Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Jerusalem, said in a statement that Israelis had already been giving low grades to the government on a host of wartime issues. That included the handling of the fighting and relations with the United States, Israel’s crucial ally, he said.

“With Gantz’s absence, I expect those grades to become even lower,” Mr. Plesner said...

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Gantz, Eisenkot quit Netanyahu's War Cabinet, Ben-Gvir wants in

from al Mayadeen English

...  War cabinet member and former Israeli Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot announced his resignation minutes after Gantz did, also citing its inaction. 

"Despite my and my colleagues' efforts, the War Cabinet has been for a long time refusing to take the required decisions to achieve the war's goals," he stressed.

"We have lately seen that the decisions being taken by the cabinet and Netanyahu do not essentially stem from national considerations," Eisenkot added.

It was expected that Eisenkot would resign alongside Gantz after a cabinet meeting on Friday night, but the meeting itself was canceled. Following the cancellation, the State Camp alliance convened a meeting of its parliamentary bloc to discuss the timing of their withdrawal from the war cabinet...

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