Benny Gantz is an Israeli lawmaker and current minister-without-portfolio, who currently leads the National Unity party.
He was born in Kfar Ahim, a moshav that his parents helped found. His mother was a Holocaust survivor and his father was arrested by British authorities for attempting to enter pre-state Israel.
Gantz was drafted to the IDF in 1977 and served in the 1982 Lebanon war. He also participated in Operation Solomon, a covert mission that rescued Ethiopian Jews in 1991.
After serving as the IDF's chief of staff, in 2018 Gantz announced the formation of a new political party, what would later become Blue and White. He would eventually become the country's defense minister before joining the opposition and then rejoining an emergency government due to the war against Hamas.
He earned a history degree from Tel Aviv University, a Political Science masters degree from Haifa University and a National Resource Management master’s degree from the United States National Defense University.
He and his wife, Revital, live in Rosh Ha’ayin.
The entire People of Israel bows its head in mourning for the fall of our heroic fighters, who risked their lives in the battle to defeat Hamas and free all our hostages," Netanyahu remarked.
MIDDLE ISRAEL: Eisenkot may emerge as Israel’s next leader because he has become a symbol of Middle Israel’s agonies, having lost, in the current war, a son and a nephew.
Gadi Eisenkot's dramatic exit forces Israeli politics to choose between confrontational alliances to defeat Netanyahu or Gantz's revolutionary pivot toward compromise.
"I have seen greatness in serving the people," he wrote. "I will act with faith and commitment to creating a leadership alternative worthy of the State of Israel."
Yair Lapid said the opposition would offer Netanyahu support to reach a ceasefire and hostage deal, should Ben-Gvir and Smotrich oppose.
While that setup may serve the party leader well, it weakens and dilutes democracy by reducing transparency, participation, competition, and accountability.
"They said there are ideological gaps, I don't recognize that," he said, contradicting Gantz's explanation, which stated that there were "significant ideological differences."
"There are no more camps, we are all Blue and White," Gantz said in a video announcing the party's name change.
Kahana's exit follows Gadi Eisenkot's Monday announcement that he would be leaving National Unity and resigning from the Knesset.
“Member of Knesset Lt. Gen. (res.) Gadi Eisenkot informed National Unity Party chairman Benny Gantz of his intention to leave the party and return his mandate to it,” the party said.
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