Benny Gantz drops out of Israel’s election race

Decision comes after polls showed his Blue and White party below the 3.25 percent threshold needed to enter the Knesset.

Benny Gantz withdraws from Israel's election race in bid to unseat Netanyahu

Benny Gantz, a former Israeli army chief and defence minister, has withdrawn from Israel’s election race after polls showed his party falling short of the threshold for entering parliament.

The leader of the Blue and White (Kahol Lavan) party announced on Monday he will not run in the October 27 polls, saying he will “continue to work for unity”.

list 1 of 3 The old pact between Israel’s government and military has broken down

list 2 of 3 What ‘right’ and ‘left’ mean in Israel today

list 3 of 3 The Israeli politicians seeking to replace Netanyahu

The 67-year-old is expected to hold a news conference later on Monday.

Opinion polls in the lead-up to next week’s vote had consistently shown Gantz’s party hovering below the 3.25 percent threshold needed to enter the 120-seat Knesset, or Israel’s parliament.

A former main opposition leader, Gantz sat in a national unity government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from 2020 to 2021.

He also joined Netanyahu’s war cabinet that was formed to oversee Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip after the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Gantz quit the emergency cabinet in early June 2024, saying Netanyahu “is preventing us from advancing toward true victory”.

Benny Gantz is a former Israeli deputy prime minister, minister of defence and minister without a portfolio in government [File: Alexi J Rosenfeld/Getty Images]

Reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said Gantz’s election withdrawal announcement “was not really expected”, but added that many would see it as being “in line with how he’s conducted himself” after entering politics in 2018.

“This is a man who entered into unity governments with leaders – especially Netanyahu – that he expressly opposed,” said Odeh.

Gantz’s message for unity is narrow, Odeh added, as it referred to “a unity government of Zionist parties, so no Palestinian Israeli parties , no non-Zionist parties in the government, even if that means bringing in Netanyahu again”.

‘Irrelevant and inconsequential’

Netanyahu’s Likud party and the far-right coalition it leads is locked in a tight race with a self-styled Zionist opposition alliance heading into the election, according to recent polling, although neither side appears on track to win a parliamentary majority.

Two Arab-led electoral lists representing the Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up about 20 percent of the population, are projected to win 13 seats and could be critical to any post-election coalition – but both main blocs have ruled out forming a government with them.

Opposition leaders, including Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot, who is seen as a potential prime minister candidate, welcomed Gantz’s decision as “correct” and “responsible”.

Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli ambassador and consul general in New York, told Al Jazeera Gantz’s exit from the race does not change the playing field as he was not going to have a major impact on the election.

“Electorally, his departure from the political system is completely irrelevant and inconsequential,” he said. “In terms of the politics, it is also inconsequential,” adding that Gantz had lost “a lot of his aura” when he “overstayed his welcome in the Netanyahu government”.

此前民调显示，他的蓝白党得票率低于进入以色列议会所需的 3.25% 的门槛，因此做出了这一决定。

本尼·甘茨退出以色列总统竞选，此前他曾试图挑战内塔尼亚胡的席位。

以色列前国防军总司令兼国防部长本尼·甘茨在民调显示其所在政党未能达到进入议会的门槛后，退出了以色列大选。

蓝白党（Kahol Lavan）领导人周一宣布，他将不会参加10月27日的选举，并表示他将“继续为团结而努力”。

列表 1/3：以色列政府与军方之间的旧协议已经破裂

列表 2/3：当今以色列“右”与“左”的含义

名单 3/3：寻求取代内塔尼亚胡的以色列政治家

这位67岁的老人预计将于周一晚些时候召开新闻发布会。

在下周投票前的民意调查中，甘茨的政党一直徘徊在进入拥有 120 个席位的以色列议会（Knesset）所需的 3.25% 的门槛之下。

甘茨曾是主要反对党领袖，2020 年至 2021 年与总理本杰明·内塔尼亚胡一起在民族团结政府中任职。

他还加入了内塔尼亚胡组建的战争内阁，该内阁负责监督以色列在加沙地带对巴勒斯坦人发动的种族灭绝战争，这场战争是在2023年10月7日哈马斯领导的袭击发生在以色列南部之后举行的。甘茨于2024年6月初辞去了紧急内阁职务，称内塔尼亚胡“正在阻止我们走向真正的胜利”。

本尼·甘茨是以色列前副总理、国防部长和不管部长。[图片：Alexi J Rosenfeld/Getty Images]

半岛电视台记者努尔·奥德从被占领的约旦河西岸拉马拉报道称，甘茨宣布退出选举“出乎意料”，但他补充说，许多人会认为这“与他自 2018 年进入政坛以来的行事方式一致”。

奥德说：“这个人曾与他明确反对的领导人——尤其是内塔尼亚胡——组建联合政府。”

奥德补充说，甘茨提出的团结信息很狭隘，因为它指的是“由犹太复国主义政党组成的联合政府，所以政府中没有巴勒斯坦以色列政党，也没有非犹太复国主义政党，即使这意味着再次让内塔尼亚胡上台”。

“无关紧要”

根据最近的民意调查，内塔尼亚胡的利库德集团及其领导的极右翼联盟与一个自称犹太复国主义反对派联盟在即将到来的选举中陷入了激烈的竞争，尽管双方似乎都没有赢得议会多数席位的希望。

代表以色列巴勒斯坦公民（约占以色列人口的 20%）的两个阿拉伯人领导的选举名单预计将赢得 13 个席位，这对任何选后联盟都至关重要——但两大阵营都已排除与他们组建政府的可能性。

包括被视为总理候选人的亚沙尔党领导人加迪·艾森科特在内的反对派领导人对甘茨的决定表示欢迎，称其“正确”且“负责任”。

以色列前驻纽约大使兼总领事阿隆·平卡斯告诉半岛电视台，甘茨退出竞选并不会改变选情，因为他不会对选举产生重大影响。

“从选举角度来看，他退出政坛完全无关紧要，”他说。“从政治角度来看，这也无关紧要，”他还补充说，甘茨在内塔尼亚胡政府“待得太久”后，已经失去了“很多光环”。