Jerusalem | Compared with the loquacious Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, a politician who loves television cameras and has a taste for delivering impromptu speeches, his rival Benny Gantz is practically a sphinx.
For months, Mr Gantz, a 59-year-old retired chief of the Israeli army and a political neophyte, has been tussling with the veteran Likud leader in a campaign that culminates in parliamentary elections on Tuesday. Yet even during a period of intense scrutiny by the nation’s tabloids, Mr Gantz has remained inscrutable — a blank canvas upon which a substantial chunk of voters can project their loathing of Mr Netanyahu’s belligerent style.
His military background cancels out allegations of weakness, while his patrician bearing suggests leadership qualities. His striking good looks — he is tall, lean, with piercing blue eyes — are redolent of a movie star playing the warrior-statesman.
Having sat out the three-year cooling-off period required of military leaders contemplating politics, Mr Gantz strode into the public arena just as Mr Netanyahu’s hold on power appeared to be slipping. The prime minister faces the threat of indictment for corruption — on charges that he not only denies but has used to rally his rightwing base.
Mr Gantz’s career in the army assured him of a warm welcome — if not automatic approval — in a country where most Jews serve in the military. But his politics remain hard to parse, especially after he established the so-called Blue and White Alliance with a centrist, secular party led by the TV personality Yair Lapid.
Read the article by Mehul Srivastava in the Australian Financial Review.