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Blue and White leader Benny Gantz takes a photo with an attendee at a Tel Aviv International Salon event, Feb. 17, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Amir Cohen.
Former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top political rival — endorsed the recently-unveiled Trump Middle East peace plan on Monday, calling it a “historic opportunity” that Netanyahu was not sincere about pursuing.
At an English-language Tel Aviv International Salon event, Gantz — who heads the centrist Blue and White party — said, “I think we have a moral, national obligation to promote peace.”
“We may send our kids to fight again,” he noted. “We must be able to look in their eyes and say we have tried everything else, now we have no alternative, you must fight.”
He stated regarding Trump’s proposal, “I think it’s a strong vision, a historic opportunity to restart negotiations from a more realistic perspective.”
“We have to give up some of our dreams and hopes, they [the Palestinians] have to give up some of their dreams and hopes, and there we can start really negotiating,” he added.
“I think that we should try and promote it to the degree it’s possible, and together with the different countries around us,” Gantz said.
He did express reservations, however, about two aspects of the US initiative — the potential transfer of some Israeli Arab communities bordering the West Bank to a future Palestinian state and land swaps that would expand the Gaza Strip into parts of the Negev Desert currently part of Israel.
Gantz asserted that Netanyahu was not serious about pursuing negotiations with the Palestinians on the basis of the Trump plan.
“I’ll tell you what’s the difference between Netanyahu and myself,” he said. “We all talk about peace, but we mean it. We all talk about promoting the political process with our neighbors, but we mean it.”
Gantz also addressed the upcoming US presidential election in November and accused Netanyahu of undermining support for Israel among Democrats.
“It’s very important that we will emphasize the importance of a bipartisan relationship between Israel and the United States,” he said.
“This is something that unfortunately Netanyahu neglected, and he went with the Republican Party, but we don’t care if the American president is a Republican or a Democrat,” Gantz continued. “If he’s a good president for the United States, by definition he is a good president for the State of Israel.”