Stig Östlund

måndag, september 23, 2019

Benny Gantz

JERUSALEM — After 27 years of sitting out decisions on who should lead Israel, Arab lawmakers on Sunday recommended that Benny Gantz, the centrist former army chief, get the first chance to form a government over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a watershed assertion of political power.




Benjamin "Benny" Gantz is a former Israeli military chief who believes he can unseat long-serving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu .

His centrist Blue and White alliance came away with 35 seats in April's election, the same number as Mr Netanyahu's Likud party. Mr Gantz hopes now he can oust the prime minister at the second attempt.

The 60-year-old retired lieutenant-general is a newcomer to politics who formed Blue and White in February, promising to unite a country that had "lost its way".

Mr Gantz was born in 1959 in Kfar Ahim, a co-operative farmers' village in central Israel founded by immigrants. His father and mother, Nahum and Malka, were survivors of the Holocaust.

As a youth, Mr Gantz attended a boarding school in a youth village near Tel Aviv.

After finishing there in 1977, he enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and joined the Paratroopers Brigade. His first assignment was to help provide security for Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's historic visit to Israel.

Last soldier in Lebanon
Two years later, he graduated from the IDF officer school and was made a company commander in the Paratrooper Brigade. From then on, he rose steadily through the ranks.

He has played key roles in significant military campaigns, including in May 1991 when he led the Israel Air Force's elite commando unit in the operation that saw thousands of Ethiopian Jews airlifted to Israel in only 36 hours.

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