Iran Press/ West Asia: According to Israeli media, the ministers in the Zionist war council, Benny Gantz, Gadi Eisenkot, and Hili Tropper, announced last night their resignation from the war government, in a move that led to a state of division and confusion among the leaders of the enemy entity, headed by Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Eisenkot confirmed in his resignation letter to Netanyahu: "The government's decisions and your decisions personally are taken for political considerations, while the war cabinet refrained from taking important decisions that were to achieve the goals of the war and improve Israel's strategic situation, which harmed the security and strategic situation of the entity."
Gantz also said: "Their participation in the War Council was motivated by a 'common destiny' and not a political partnership... criticizing Netanyahu for obstructing important strategic decisions for political reasons. Gantz explained that his party's withdrawal from the government in light of the failure to recover the kidnapped from Gaza represents a complex challenge... adding: "Israel's top priority is to achieve real victory, which is the return of the kidnapped more than remaining in power.
Gantz called on Netanyahu to hold elections as soon as possible and form a national investigation committee... stressing that the decision to withdraw came because Netanyahu was preventing progress toward achieving real victory. Gantz continued by saying: "He supports the deal offered by US President Joe Biden, and called on Netanyahu to be bold to make it succeed, and called on party leaders to stand by him to hold elections to form a national unity government.
Gantz's resignation from the war government put many things within the occupied entity at stake. Thus Gantz withdraws the only centrist force in the far-right coalition led by Netanyahu amid a war that has been going on for months. The army commander was the former defense minister threatened in May to withdraw from the government due to the lack of a strategy for the post-war period in the Gaza Strip.
Minister Gadi Eisenkot, a member of Gantz's party, also resigned, leaving the war government with only three members, which makes all the major decisions regarding the war against Hamas. Netanyahu's defeated response was not long in coming but came within minutes. He said: "Israel is waging an existential war on several fronts."
Benny now is not the time to withdraw from the battle, it is the time to unite our forces." Netanyahu's two far-right coalition partners, the far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, also did not delay responding. At the end of the ministers' resignation speech, Ben Gvir said: "I sent a letter to Netanyahu, asking him to join the war government." He added: "As a minister in the government, head of a party, and a major partner in the coalition, I demand that you join this government."
Smotrich criticized Gantz's resignation, saying: "There is no less monumental act than withdrawing from the government during the war. Your move aims to fragment cohesion for political and irresponsible reasons." These resignations came at a time when the occupying entity was experiencing increasing pressure on Netanyahu internally and externally, raising many questions, the most important of which is perhaps whether Gantz's resignation would lead to the fall of the government formed from a coalition that included extremist religious and nationalist parties, and what impact this will have on the course of the war and negotiations, as well as the truce proposal that is still in place, in addition to what was raised regarding the possibility of holding early elections.
Netanyahu is facing increasing calls from its Western allies and the families of the hostages held in Gaza to end the war and return the prisoners, eight months after the start of the war, in which the occupying entity has not achieved its declared goals. America has repeatedly called on Netanyahu to present a concrete plan for the post-war period in Gaza. US President Joe Biden, who last week proposed a three-pronged Israeli peace agreement, indicated that Netanyahu would likely benefit from prolonging the conflict.
Last April, Gantz called for early elections in September, before the first anniversary of the war, saying that Israel needed to renew their contract with their leadership. Gantz often outperforms Netanyahu in terms of popularity, according to opinion polls. A poll published by the Israeli newspaper Maariv on Friday revealed that Gantz's support rate is 42 percent compared to 34 percent for Netanyahu. The ongoing Israeli-American aggression on Gaza since October 7 has left more than 118,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and about ten thousand missing amid massive destruction and famine that has claimed the lives of children and the elderly.
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