War Cabinet minister and centrist leader Benny Gantz has canceled this evening’s press conference on the expiration of the ultimatum given to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a change of policy in the war on Gaza, under penalty of exiting the government. The announcement came immediately after news that the IDF had freed 4 Israeli hostages in Gaza.
In fact, today, June 8, the ultimatum that the centrist minister of the War Cabinet had given to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to present a plan for Gaza, under penalty of leaving the government, expired today. Last May 18, the centrist leader – who joined the national emergency government at the start of the conflict – ordered Netanyahu to “choose”. “Otherwise – he added – we will leave the executive”.
Gantz had indicated “a US-EU-Arab direction” for the political future of Gaza in contrast to what Netanyahu argued against involving the Palestinian National Authority in the government of the Strip. Gantz pressed Netanyahu on six goals involving foreign and domestic policy: release of hostages; defeat of Hamas and demilitarization of Gaza; alternative government in the Palestinian enclave; return to their homes in the north by September 1 of Israeli residents displaced by the Hezbollah threat; rehabilitation of the Negev; promoting normalization with Saudi Arabia; adoption of a provision for military conscription for all Israelis, including Haredim religious figures.
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