Benny Gantz drops out of Israel’s election race

Decision comes after polls showed his Blue and White party below the 3.25 percent threshold needed to enter the Knesset.Published On 19 Oct 202619 Oct 2026Benny Gantz, a former Israeli army chief and defence minister, has withdrawn from Israel’s election race after polls showed his party falling short of the threshold for entering parliament.The leader of the Blue and White (Kahol Lavan) party announced on Monday he will not run in the October 27 polls, saying he will “continue to work for unity”.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3The old pact between Israel’s government and military has broken downlist 2 of 3What ‘right’ and ‘left’ mean in Israel todaylist 3 of 3The Israeli politicians seeking to replace Netanyahuend of listThe 67-year-old is expected to hold a news conference later on Monday.Opinion polls in the lead-up to next week’s vote had consistently shown Gantz’s party hovering below the 3.25 percent threshold needed to enter the 120-seat Knesset, or Israel’s parliament.A former main opposition leader, Gantz sat in a national unity government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from 2020 to 2021.He also joined Netanyahu’s war cabinet that was formed to overse...