Former IDF chief Benny Gantz forms new party

Benny Gantz
Benny Gantz

Current polls indicate that Gantz's "Hosen Leyisrael" party could gain more than ten Knesset seats.

Now it's official. In a much anticipated move, Lieutenant General (res.) Benny Gantz, former chief of staff of the IDF, registered a new political party today called "Hosen Leyisrael', apparently to be known in English as the "Israel Resilience Party". It is believed that Gantz will seek to form political alliances, but at the moment it is a case of an independent party with Gantz at its head. Member of Knesset Orly Levy-Abekasis, who resigned from the Yisrael Beiteinu party, has also registered a new party, called "Gesher" ("Bridge").

There has been no announcement so far of who will run on Gantz's party list, but names being suggested include former chief of staff and defense minister Moshe Ya'alon, and Yoaz Hendel, chairman of the Institute for Zionist Strategies and formerly Director of Communications and Public Diplomacy on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's staff.

Ya'alon has been courted over the past year both by Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid party and by the Labor Party, but he preferred to register a party of his own.

Recent polls indicate that Gantz's decision to set up a party and run independently in Israel's forthcoming election in April changes the political map, with his party projected to gain more than ten Knesset seats.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 27, 2018

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2018

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