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Benny Gantz is quitting Israel’s war Cabinet, citing frustrations
JERUSALEM | Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel’s three-man war Cabinet, announced his resignation Sunday, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of mismanaging the war effort and putting his own “political survival” over the country’s security needs.
The move does not immediately pose a threat to Netanyahu, who still controls a majority coalition in parliament. But the Israeli leader becomes more heavily reliant on far-right allies who oppose the latest U.S.-backed cease-fire proposal and want to press ahead with the war.
“Unfortunately, Netanyahu is preventing us from achieving true victory, which is the justification for the painful and ongoing price,” Gantz said. He added that Netanyahu was “making empty promises,” and the country needs to take a different direction as he expects the fighting to continue for years to come.
The popular former military chief joined Netanyahu’s government shortly after the Hamas attack in a show of unity. His presence also boosted Israel’s credibility with its international partners. Gantz has good working relations with U.S. officials.
Gantz had previously said he would leave the government by June 8 if Netanyahu did not formulate a new plan for postwar Gaza.
He scrapped a planned news conference Saturday night after four Israelihostages were dramatically rescued from Gaza earlier in the day in Israel’s largest such operation since the eight-month war began. At least 274 Palestinians, including children, were killed in the assault, Gaza health officials said.
Gantz called for Israel to hold elections in the fall, and encouraged the third member of the war Cabinet, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, to “do the right thing” and resign from the government as well. Gallant has previously said he would resign if Israel chose to reoccupy Gaza, and encouraged the government to make plans for a Palestinian administration.
On Saturday, Netanyahu had urged Gantz not to leave the emergency wartime government.
“This is the time for unity, not for division,” he said, in a direct plea to Gantz.
Gantz’s decision to leave is largely “a symbolic move” due to his frustration with Netanyahu, said Gideon Rahat, chairman of the political science department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He noted it could further increase Netanyahu’s reliance on extremist, right-wing members of his government, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
“I think the outside world, especially the United States, is not very happy about it, because they see Gantz and his party as the more responsible people within this government,” Rahat said.
On Sunday evening, Ben-Gvir demanded a spot in the war Cabinet, saying Gantz and the smaller Cabinet had bungled the war effort due to “dangerous” ideological decisions.
Hamas took some 250 hostages during the Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people. About half were released in a weeklong cease-fire in November. About 120 hostages remain, with 43 pronounced dead. At least 36,700 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting, according to Gaza’s HealthMinistry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.
Newly chosen Haitian prime minister discharged from a hospital
PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti | Haiti’s newly selected Prime Minister Garry Conille was discharged from a hospital Sunday after spending a night in treatment for an undisclosed condition.
In a video published on YouTube, Conille said he felt well and was “ready” to continue to help steer the country out of its current security crisis by forming a government that will also prioritize issues like health care.
In his video, Conille said: “The whole time I was at the hospital, I was thinking of something: People that need to go to the general hospital can’t get there (due to widespread violence). People who need health care can’t afford it.”
Conille arrived in Haiti on June 1 after a transitional council selected him as the nation’s new prime minister. He had been working outside the country as UNICEF’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
The new prime minister has an arduous task ahead of him, having to quell rampant gang violence while helping lift Haiti out of deep poverty, with inflation reaching a record 29%, according to the latest data available.
In recent years, gangs that control at least 80% of Port-au-Prince have forced more than 360,000 people from their homes, and they control key routes from the capital to Haiti’s northern and southern regions, often paralyzing the transportation of critical goods.
Conille’s predecessor, Ariel Henry, was forced to resign in April, following coordinated attacks by gangs that seized police stations, raided prisons and fired on the nation’s main international airport while Henry was on an official trip to Kenya.
The Haitian government is now awaiting the U.N.-backed deployment of a police force from Kenya and other countries.
A person close to Conille, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, told The Associated Press on Saturday night that he was with the prime minister when he noticed Conille, who he said is asthmatic and sometimes uses an inhaler, appeared to have trouble breathing. The person said he called high-ranking officials and told them Conille needed to be taken to the hospital.
Conille appeared to be in good spirits in the video released Sunday, where he sported a purple shirt and spoke against a background of trees and bushes.
“I hope that by early next week we can have a government in place,” he said. “I am doing everything we can so we can get out of this crisis.”
—From AP reports
