Since entering politics, Defense Minister Benny Gantz has twice felt his patience was running out. When that happened, he no longer cared about the consequences. The first time this happened was toward the end of now Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu's government. It is now happening for a second time. It is not just the pensions for career IDF soldiers, an issue he views with great importance, but the very way in which he has been dismissed by his fellow coalition members. The demeaning treatment he believes he has received not just this week when "senior coalition members" held a briefing in which they accused him of childish behavior and looking out for his commander buddies by increasing their already fat pensions is in fact the same treatment he has received since the coalition's establishment.
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Gantz is confident all the talk of him being liable to join forces with Netanyahu and take down the government is coming not just from hopeful Likud officials but from Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister and Prime Minister-designate Yair Lapid. He sees those he refers to as "Lapidists," who attack him in the press and on Twitter daily, and it is clear to him that someone from above is orchestrating these attacks. Gantz is confident that the more they try to walk all over him, the more his power will grow. Blue and White is the only party not sinking, but rather rising, in the polls, and he believes that is precisely what is driving Bennett and Lapid so crazy.
Gantz's inner circle has accused Cabinet Secretary Shalom Shlomo of being behind the briefings in which he was accused of behaving like a small child. Shlomo may not have been behind the briefings, but the message certainly came from Bennett's close associates.
If it were up to Gantz, Lapid would not enter the Prime Minister's Office in another six months. In closed talks this week, he said that if given the opportunity, he would act toward that end unless it meant restoring Netanyahu to power. Gantz, however, is stuck. Should he resign from the coalition and the government collapse as a result, Lapid would automatically become premiere. It is for this very reason that he is in a state of limbo.
Among coalition members, the feeling is that Gantz's conduct this week was nothing more than political spin. It reflected a desire for attention and his hope to appoint his close associate Omer Yankelevich chairwoman of the United Israel Appeal institute. With elections for the position drawing near, they claim Gantz is increasingly agitating to announce her appointment to the role. Gantz cannot say this publicly, they argue, so he cloaks this urgency in other demands.
Gantz is not just a symptom. An unprecedented sight was seen the Knesset plenum Wednesday, as opposition members found themselves passing legislation unhindered. Coalition members, meanwhile, simply walked out of the plenum in desperation. Bennett will soon have the opportunity to try and repair ties when the Knesset takes its winter recess, but as things currently stand, this will be an impossible task. This is no longer a case of needing to extinguish specific fires; the entire forest has now begun to burn.
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