National Unity party leader Benny Gantz stated that Israel’s complete pullout from Gaza in 2005 was a mistake, arguing that suggestions to further retreat or establish a Palestinian state ignore current security needs.
Gantz, a former IDF chief of staff and defense minister, made his remarks while speaking at a “Settlements Conference” in Ofra, located in the West Bank. The event was hosted by the religious-Zionist newspaper Makor Rishon.
His remarks followed the government’s recent declaration that it would begin appropriating land in Gaza. Gantz, who entered the wartime cabinet shortly after Hamas’s brutal October 7, 2023 attack, said he had pushed from the outset for Israel to secure parts of Gaza to establish a security buffer.
Although Gantz returned to the opposition in June after falling out with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu over the management of the war, he said joining the government at that critical juncture had been “the most important and most correct decision I’ve made in political life,” and emphasized that he had no regrets about doing so.
Reflecting on Israel’s 2005 Disengagement from Gaza — in which all settlements were dismantled and about 8,500 residents were evacuated — Gantz described the process as fraught with “lots of problems.”
“The biggest mistake, in my opinion, was evacuating the northern settlements of Dugit, Nissanit, and Elei Sinai,” said Gantz, who at the time served as head of the IDF’s Northern Command.
“We should have stayed there in order to control the territory,” Gantz said. “But principally there was a need to remain there in order to inform the world that the ’67 lines are irrelevant,” he continued, referencing the pre-1967 borders Israel held before it captured territories such as Gaza during the Six Day War.
He voiced support for maintaining military control over Gaza but warned against rebuilding settlements there, saying that doing so would “be a mistake defense-wise, and would also divide the nation at a time when we need unity.”
“The State of Israel cannot allow a direct and substantive threat to its citizens on all its borders,” said Gantz. “Therefore, [it] needs security control and to preserve freedom of action in Gaza, the West Bank, southern Lebanon, and in the border region with Syria.”
“The implication is clear, and anyone who talks about a Palestinian state or withdrawals is simply disconnected from the security reality,” he added.
His dismissal of the two-state concept drew backlash from the political left. MK Gilad Kariv of the Democratic party responded online, writing, “after October 7, the idea that it is possible to ignore the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and not offer any diplomatic path is even more disconnected from reality.”
Kariv went on to argue that it is “a need to present an alternative of renewing the diplomatic dialogue between Jerusalem and Ramallah within the framework of a regional pact and under an international umbrella.”
Although Gantz once backed a “two-entity solution,” and as defense minister in 2021 held a rare meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas — reportedly telling him he aspired to be a “new Rabin” — he has now clearly distanced himself from that stance. Rabin was assassinated in 1995 while advocating for a two-state resolution.
In the early days of the Gaza war, Gantz’s approval ratings soared, and polls identified him as a top contender to replace Netanyahu, especially due to his perceived sense of leadership after the massacre in southern Israel in which over 1,200 were murdered and 251 taken hostage.
But in recent months, Gantz’s popularity has waned, with newer polls showing him bleeding support to Naftali Bennett, the ex-prime minister who has firmly opposed the creation of a Palestinian state.
{Matzav.com Israel}