Gantz Drops Out as Blue and White Trails Knesset Threshold — SkimNews
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- Benny Gantz withdrew from Israel's October 27 election race after polls showed his Blue and White party hovering below the 3.25% threshold required to enter the 120-seat Knesset.
- Gantz said he will "continue to work for unity," but his message refers only to Zionist parties, excluding Palestinian Israeli and non-Zionist parties from any future government, according to Al Jazeera's Nour Odeh.
- Gantz had served in Netanyahu's national unity government from 2020 to 2021 and joined the emergency war cabinet after October 7, 2023, quitting in early June 2024 over Netanyahu "preventing us from advancing toward true victory."
- Netanyahu's Likud and the far-right coalition it leads are locked in a tight race with a self-styled Zionist opposition alliance, but neither side appears on track to win a parliamentary majority.
- Two Arab-led electoral lists representing Israel's roughly 20% Palestinian minority are projected to win 13 seats and could prove critical to any coalition — though both main blocs have ruled out governing with them.
- Yashar leader Gadi Eisenkot welcomed Gantz's exit as "correct" and "responsible," while former diplomat Alon Pinkas called it "completely irrelevant and inconsequential" electorally and politically.
Why it matters: Gantz's exit shrinks the opposition field heading into October 27, leaving Likud and a far-right bloc tied with a Zionist opposition alliance — neither on track for a Knesset majority. With two Arab-led lists projected at 13 seats and both main blocs refusing to govern with them, the 3.25% threshold now functions as the decisive gatekeeper that determines whether the next coalition leans further right or remains deadlocked.
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