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What To Make of the Departure of Benny Gantz

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June 12, 2024 2:41 p.m.
JERUSALEM - MARCH 27: Former Prime Minister and Leader of the opposition Yair Lapid (Rear R) and Israels Former Minister of Defense, Benny Gantz (Rear L) attend a voting session in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament... JERUSALEM - MARCH 27: Former Prime Minister and Leader of the opposition Yair Lapid (Rear R) and Israels Former Minister of Defense, Benny Gantz (Rear L) attend a voting session in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem, Israel on March 27, 2023. Mass protests have been held in Israel for 12 weeks against the government's plans to reform the justice system and limit the power of the Israeli Supreme Court. (Photo by Israeli Parliament (Knesset)/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) MORE LESS

A number of you have asked me to share my perspective on one of the Israeli opposition leaders (one of, not the official one) Benny Gantz leaving the Netanyahu coalition. So here goes. My overall impression, sadly, is perhaps best captured by not posting on it until now, though I was kind of letting it marinate while I thought of what to say. Basically, I think it matters very little. But it’s helpful to walk through the different dimensions of non-mattering.

In the most basic sense it doesn’t matter because it doesn’t endanger the governing coalition’s majority. That majority had 64 seats on October 7th, which means a majority and three seats to spare. They were added and now taken away, a wash. In the short term it only makes Netanyahu more reliant on the ultra-rightist parties in the coalition — something Gantz’s party’s entry was in some ways meant to limit.

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