Gantz needs Lapid to really takeoff
Opinion: Teaming up with former chief of staff Ya'alon is not enough. Joining forces with Gabi Ashkenazi, and Knesset member Orly Levy-Abekasis would be helpful. But only teaming up with Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid would boost Gantz's chances to bring dramatic change in the April elections.
"Gantz really impressed me and I told him that," Lapid said on Wednesday even before different TV channels published polls showing a hike for Gantz in Knesset seats and a decline for Lapid's Yesh Atid in the April elections.
But you can count on Lapid to be enough of a gentleman to reiterate his remarks after he saw the polls.
Lapid is going through a rough patch. His Yesh Atid Party, which first entered the Knesset in 2013 with 19 seats, and dropped to 11 in the 2015, is not predicted to improve upon its current standing.
Seven years of hard and target-oriented work that saw considerable successes were almost instantly trampled by the new rising star, the rookie who just entered politics and is making his first steps in the toxic political arena. Yesh Atid's well-oiled machine has been pushed aside by Gantz and his young staffers.
This should not have come as surprise to Lapid. Israel in 2019 is not much different than what it was 30 or 20 years ago. At the moment of truth, social issues move aside before matters of national security, and candidates with social agendas step down and let the generals take over.
Gantz may not possess the main quality a prime minister should have—the killer instinct—however, he is equipped with a variety of other qualities that make up for this disadvantage, the main one being the fact that he served as the 20th IDF chief of staff.
These are times of grace for the new player in Israeli politics. The polls are flattering, the politicians from the Right are hysterically walking around with pre-prepared notes, and the Left is having a hard time hiding its jealousy. It won't last long. We all remember that when Avi Gabbay was elected as the Labor party chairman, the polls predicted he would earn 24 Knesset seats, which is more than Gantz is expected to gain according to the polls. Today Labor is expected to receive merely six Knesset seats in the upcoming elections.
The Israel Resilience Party said they were free of euphoria. Everyone understands this is only the beginning, and that in the Israeli reality, the fall can happen faster than the takeoff.
Teaming up with former chief of staff Moshe “Boggi” Ya'alon is not enough. Gantz will need other collaborations, as the polls indicate. Joining forces with another former chief of staff, Gabi Ashkenazi, and Knesset member Orly Levy-Abekasis, who formed the Gesher Party after leaving former defense minister Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beytenu Party, would be helpful. But only teaming up with Lapid would boost Gantz's chances to bring about an upheaval in the elections.
Ongoing talks between Gantz and Lapid are held with no mediators. Both of them are maintaining a high level of secrecy. So far, Lapid has not shown any signs that he intends to back down from his statement that he will not be the number 2 man on somebody else's list.
But we should remember that this kind of talk usually lasts until the finish line. The parties' deadline for submitting their Knesset lists is three weeks from now. Three weeks is considered an eternity in the Israeli reality, and there you have a cliché that always proves itself to be true.
