Blue and White party chairman and former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz announced Sunday evening that he will push for term limits if elected prime minister, barring premiers from serving more than two terms as the head of the Israeli government.
Speaking at a Blue and White party press briefing Sunday, Gantz slammed incumbent Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who is currently seeking a fifth term as premier, accusing Netanyahu of hypocrisy.
“The Prime Minister doesn’t need to serve more than two terms,” Gantz said, according to Channel 13. “Netanyahu said that, but didn’t live up to his word, as usual,” Gantz continued. “When you spend too much time in a position, you lose your ability to govern and the will to serve over people and to change.”
Netanyahu, who was first elected in 1996, has served four terms – three of them consecutively – as prime minister.
During his first term, Netanyahu once told TV host Dan Shilon said he not only backed a two-term limit for premiers, but revealed that he had pushed for a clause adding the two-term limit to the direct election law passed in the 1990s – which was later repealed after the 2001 election.
“When I was one of the initiators and backers of the direct election law, I asked that a clause be added limiting a prime minister to no more than two terms,” Netanyahu said in 1997.
“If you don’t get it done in your first term, you might do what you need in the second term, but you don’t need more than that. Get things done and then go home.”
Gantz also hit Netanyahu over Israel’s handling of the latest wave of attacks by the Hamas terror organization.
“We cannot let Hamas take Israel hostage. Today, Hamas is the one who decides when and where to strike us, and where to shoot – they decide when to open fire and when to stop – it doesn’t make any sense.”
The Blue and White chief also hit the Netanyahu government over the increased flow of Qatari funds permitted into the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
“The protection [payments] have gone up to $40 million. When Hamas fires, the cabinet doesn’t convene, and when it does convene, it leaks [information]. This isn’t security.”