Longtime political rival and primary opposition leader Benny Gantz has vowed to resign from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s three-man War Cabinet unless the Israeli head-of-state adopts a new plan to govern Gaza by June 8. Gantz issued his ultimatum on Saturday, threatening to withdraw his centrist party from the already tenuous emergency unity government seven months into the war with Hamas. His demands reflected the widening dispute between Israeli leaders over how to bring about an end of the war, the return of the hostages held by Hamas, and how to govern the Gaza Strip afterward. Gantz called for the dismantling of Hamas’ armed wing and said neither their political arm or the Palestinian Authority could rule after the war, but warned against setting up a hard-line Israeli presence there. “If you choose the path of zealots, dragging the country into the abyss, we will be forced to leave the government,” Gantz said during a televised press conference.
