• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Kahol Lavan / Blue and White

Generals are revered in Israel, though many who cross into political life after their military service discover that their army experience does not always prepare them for the challenges of civilian decision-making. Former Israeli military chief Benny Gantz launched himself into politics in December 2018 with opinion polls suggesting his new party, Israel Resilience, could win a signficant number of seats. Gantz, 59, was military chief of staff from 2011-15, during two wars in the Gaza Strip. According to official party registration documents, Israel Resilience aims at "strengthening the Jewish and democratic character of the state of Israel".

By 2019 Benjamin Netanyahu was more desperate than ever. His opponents in the Center merged their parties in a new list, Kahol Lavan or “Blue and White”, which has the potential to unseat him on April 9. Former Israeli military chief of staff Benny Gantz joined forces with centrist politician Yair Lapid to run against Netanyahu for the prime minister’s seat in the upcoming general election in Israel. As part of the deal, Gantz’s Israel Resilience party and Lapid’s Yesh Atid party will merge to run as one list. Fellow former Israeli military chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi also joined the party and will be positioned fourth on its candidate list, after Moshe Ya’alon, another former chief of staff.

Polls published 17 January 2019 by state-owned radio and TV broadcaster Kan and by the private Hadashot news company showed that Israel Resilience could win 13 seats in the 120-member parliament, with Likud scoring 31 or 32 seats. The two polls put Gantz's party in either second or third place behind Likud. The Kan poll said Gantz was favoured as a potential premier by 31 percent of respondents, second to Netanyahu, who scored 42 percent.

Four opinion polls on Israeli TV and news websites on 30 January 2019 showed popularity spike for Gantz's new middle-of-the-road Resilience party at the expense of center-left rivals. But it was still running second to Netanyahu's right-wing Likud. The surveys gave Gantz's party between 19 and 24 seats in the 120-member parliament - up from around 12 to 15 in previous polls - compared with 29 to 31 for Likud, about the same number as in earlier forecasts.

A survey published 21 February 2019 on Israeli news website Walla, gave Israel Resilience 19 seats in the parliament, making it the second largest party after the ruling Likud party that received 31 seats. Yesh Atid came in third with 13 seats. The survey gave a joint Gantz-Lapid party 34 seats, surpassing Netanyahu’s Likud by one seat, but weakening potential collaborators with Gantz and Lapid from the left and center of the political map, making them less likely to be able to form a coalition without Netanyahu.

In response to a question at a public event regarding peace with the Palestinians, Lapid reiterated several of these points. “We need to separate from the Palestinians, and we need to do it on four terms that to me are essential,” he explained. First, he said, “Israeli security should stay in Israeli hands,” which means permitting the army to enter Palestinian territory to prevent terrorism. Second, the Jordan Valley must remain in Israeli hands. Third, he rejected the Palestinian demand that refugees be allowed to settle in Israel. Fourth, Jerusalem must remain undivided “because countries do not divide their own capitals.”

At the annual AIPAC Policy Conference, Gantz addressed the issue of providing an egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall, saying it “is long enough to accommodate everyone.” He added, “In Bergen-Belsen (where his mother was held), no-one asked who is Reform and who is Conservative; who is Orthodox and who is secular” and “before going into battle, I never checked to see who had a kippa under their helmet.”

Kachol Lavan was the largest opposition ticket, a merger of Benny Gantz’s Hosen Leyisrael, Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid, and Moshe Ya’alon’s Telem. The faction is primarily seen as a vehicle to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with its preferred option being a unity government with a post-Netanyahu Likud. While the party is broadly centrist, its ideological underpinnings are difficult to place precisely, particularly as they concern the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Gabi Ashkenazi (former IDF chief of staff and the list’s number four) and Yair Lapid support a two-state solution. Benny Gantz has advocated steps to disengage from the Palestinians without a complete withdrawal from the occupied territories, including policies which could be compatible with both one- and two-state proposals. Moshe Ya’alon (a former IDF chief of staff and number three on the list) publicly opposes the two-state solution, a position he reaffirmed in the early stages of the first 2019 Knesset campaign.

In the April 2019 vote, the party won 35 seats, tying with Likud; however, Netanyahu was seen as having a better chance to form a governing coalition and was allowed to try. He failed but orchestrated the dissolution of the Knesset to force a second election in September. Kahol Lavan and Likud again appeared in a dead heat in September, but with fewer seats than they won in April. Kahol Lavan won 33 seats to 31 for Likud. Netanyahu called for negotiations with Gantz to discuss a coalition, but Gantz rebuffed him.

Ultimately, Gantz failed to form a coalition, and a third election was scheduled for March 2, 2020. The outcome of the election, as in the previous two, did not result in any party winning a majority of the votes or having an obvious coalition Gantz suddenly and unexpectedly reversed his pledge not to serve under a prime minister charged with crimes on March 26, 2020, announcing he would “explore the formation of a national emergency government” under Netanyahu. The announcement led to the breakup of the Blue and White Party. Gantz’s two partners, Yair Lapid and Moshe Ya’alon, remained opposed to serving in a Netanyahu-led government.

A new election was called for March 23, 2021. Gantz’s decision to serve with Netanyahu, combined with what was widely seen as a poor performance in government, resulted in Kahol Lavan plummeting in the polls and several defections to other parties. The party won only eight seats in the 2021 election and joined the coalition government headed by Naftali Bennett. Gantz was named Defense Minister.

After the Bennett government collapsed in June 2022, Gantz and Gideon Sa’ar announced the merger of Kahol Lavan and New Hope and their intention to run jointly in the next election, with Gantz at the top of the ticket and Sa’ar second. Sa’ar described the joint venture as the embodiment of the “stately right and security center.”