Sources close to former chief of staff Benny Gantz told Haaretz on Tuesday that he intends to run for the Knesset on an independent list, and not as part of one of the existing major parties.
In this context, polls published on Tuesday predicted MK Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party or the Labor party (a.k.a. Zionist Union) would get between 25-26 Knesset seats should Gantz deign to joins them. Considering the fact that both parties stand to win between 9 and 13 seats had the vote taken place today – it’s no wonder the former commander of the Israeli military forces has attained messianic proportions for them.
In order to complete the process of registering his new party before the deadline, Gantz must submit an application to the Registrar of Parties within two weeks. His deadline for joining an already registered party is February 20.
According to a Channel Ten News poll, if Gantz joins Yesh Atid, the party would win 26 seats and Likud drops down to 27. Channel Two’s survey says that should Ganz join the Zionist Union, that party will win 25 Knesset seats and the Likud would rise to 31.
Channel Ten’s reporter Raviv Drucker on Tuesday tweeted Zionist Union chairman Avi Gabbai offered Gantz the first spot on his party’s list, and Gantz refused. In fact, it appears that even if Zionist Union were the last remaining party in Israel, in the event of something distopian, God forbid, Gantz would still not join. The reason is, apparently, that the former COS wishes to brand himself as the grownup in the room, king of the moderate center—just like every new politician since 1977—and so must not identify himself with the left—ditto.
However, according to Ha’aretz, the former chief of staff does not rule out joining one of the new parties scotch-hopping in the meadows of the new elections, such as the ones under the leadership of Adina Bar Shalom, Orly Levy-Abekasis or former chief of staff and deposed defense minister Moshe Ya’alon. Just as long as they give him the number one spot, because that’s a must for the fledgling politician whose platform, beliefs and ideology are yet to be shared with the public.
