Anyone ‘not named Netanyahu’: Gantz hopes he’ll be able to help choose next PM

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Facing political oblivion, Blue and White chief says he has ‘no regrets’ over move allowing the Likud leader to remain prime minister, but vows not to do it again.

An election campaign billboard for the Blue and White party on a highway in Tel Aviv reading ‘Benny to the Knesset or Bibi for ever,’ on March 12, 2021. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

AFP — A year ago, Blue and White chair Benny Gantz got a shot at forming a government, but now he faces potential political oblivion, barely a week ahead of Israel’s fourth election in two years.

The ex-military chief’s centrist political alliance won 33 seats in the March 2020 polls, before he fell just short of cobbling together a coalition in the 120-seat Knesset.

« I don’t regret agreeing to join the coalition, because I did it out of responsibility towards the state of Israel at a time of crisis,” Gantz told AFP in an interview on Friday.But his alliance was broken by the move.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz attend a graduation ceremony for new Air Force pilots at the Hatzerim air base near Beersheba, June 25, 2020. (Ariel Schalit/ Pool/AFP)

Many considered it a betrayal, especially after two similarly close elections in 2019 established Gantz as the standard-bearer of efforts to unseat Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.

His deal with Netanyahu — Israel’s first premier to stand trial for corruption while in office — saw him become defense minister on the understanding the two men would swap roles after 18 months.

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