Israel must work to form a coalition of Zionist parties from the Right and the Left after the upcoming election, Blue and White chairman and former defense minister Benny Gantz told 103FM in a Sunday interview.
"Yesterday I stopped at a coffee cart in Kibbutz Ruhama. I spoke with a nice woman who came up to me in tears and great excitement, and told me she supports me and is very worried about what will happen here," Gantz said.
"She said to her daughter: If Netanyahu remains in power, you're not going to officers' course. I told her that there is someone else in the country who says: If [Naftali] Bennett, Gadi [Eisenkot], or [Yair] Lapid becomes prime minister, you're not going to officers' course."
"The rift in the country is killing us," he said. "I have no shadow of a doubt that if we do not want more of the same, we must form a Zionist unity government, because the Zionist majority in the country is the one truly carrying the wagon. Let it take the right to lead. That is what I am working on, and I hope to succeed."
The former IDF chief of staff and defense minister did not sound enthusiastic about the framework of an agreement between the US and Iran.
"The feeling is not one of failure, because the military and operational achievements are very high, but of a strategic missed opportunity, because we did not manage, on our own against Lebanon and with the Americans in Iran, to strategically realize the major military achievements," he said.
"We need to prepare to deal with these things in the years to come as well, including militarily, that seems absolutely clear to me."
Gantz remained pessimistic regarding Lebanon, Iran deal
Asked about reports that the ceasefire in Iran would also stop Israeli offensive activity in Lebanon, Gantz said that "we will need to insist in the next 60 days that Beirut is not the same as Tehran."
"I can accept arguments for and against when it comes to Iran, but Lebanon and Israel are two neighboring countries, and we should not be dependent on others in everything related to it," the Blue and White chairman stressed. "We cannot take security risks, and we need to act with all our strength and independence. October 7 changed the regional and conceptual reality, and we cannot agree to that. I explained this to the Biden administration, which opposed entering Gaza, and Netanyahu did not do this successfully."
After he was asked whether he thought Netanyahu had caved to pressure from Washington, Gantz answered yes.
He argued that the prime minister erred when he changed Israel's conduct toward the US and preferred Republicans over Democrats.
"We are the only Western democratic outpost in the Middle East. When we moved toward one direction, we remained captive to one direction, and that is Netanyahu's failure," he said.
Writing his first book, We
Gantz then spoke about his new status: author. "This was the first time I was at the book fair from the writer's side. It was a beautiful experience in Jerusalem," he said excitedly.
"The book is based on material I wrote over the years, and on conversations I had with my wife, Revital. It had been a dream of ours to write a book from two points of view, but unfortunately, Revital fell ill, and then I told her story."
He was asked whether he feels guilty that, as a man in the military and later a military man, he was not present enough at home.
"There are also those feelings. It is natural to have guilt feelings," he replied. "But I learned to deal with the three axes: taking care of Revital, taking care of my family, and taking care of my country. I learned to handle this braid, and I am trying to deal with it as much as I can."