Benny Gantz's political career is not over yet - opinion

• Author: EHUD OLMERT
• Published date: 07 January 2021
• Date: 07 January 2021
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

This format that was created to fit the original Blue and White, which included Yesh Atid, Bogie Ya'alon and his people, was supposed to bear fruit. Meir Cohen's candidacy for speaker of the Knesset was a suitable step. Cohen was a successful minister, and if he'd been elected speaker, he would have brought honor to the Knesset and to the people who elected him.

Although Netanyahu understood this, his opponents had a hard time digesting this truth. In practice, the role of Knesset speaker – especially in such an oppositional political reality as the one we've been experiencing for some time now – can dictate the public agenda and set the priorities for Israel's political activities. In short, there are certain times when the speaker of the Knesset can elevate but also humiliate, can promote or reject moves that will shape Israeli society.

Netanyahu threatened to dissolve the Knesset if Cohen was elected. This is one of the situations in which leadership qualities are measured. Netanyahu made a threat, but it was an idle one. If Cohen had been elected speaker, Netanyahu would have had to come to terms with arrangements and concessions that ran contrary to his previous positions. The political reality would have changed and all of the developments we've all been dragged into would have taken a turn. In the moment of truth, when their leadership skills, determination and perhaps even callousness were called for, Gantz and Ashkenazi failed the test.

Some people believe otherwise. They claim that Yoaz Handel and Zvi Hauser didn't really intend to go up against Bibi, and would not have supported a law prohibiting someone who was facing criminal charges to be allowed to form a government.

I have a heavy heart when I think about Hendel and Hauser. In my opinion, there was no justification for including them in Blue and White's list in the first place. They didn't fit the Blue and White mold. Yesh Atid faction members should have opposed letting the two of them join Blue and White, even if it meant letting go of Bogie Ya'alon. His contribution to Blue and White was limited from the get-go.

Hendel and Hauser surely knew that their joining Blue and White was unusual, and that their electoral contribution was negligible, though they of course would probably disagree. However, a cursory examination of voting patterns of the people who voted for Blue and White, especially in areas that show strong support for right-wing parties, shows that Blue and White failed to...