GOVERNMENT

Benny Gantz

Defense Minister

Benny Gantz is Israel's outgoing Defense Minister and the head of the Blue and White Party. In a distinguished military career, Gantz – who was brought up on a moshav in the south of Israel – has served as the IDF’s chief of staff, as well as commander of Israel’s reserve divisions in the north and as military attaché to the US. In 1989, Gantz oversaw the Operation Solomon airlift of nearly 15,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel. As he and former prime minister Yair Lapid prepared to leave government following Benjamin Netanyahu’s victory in the November 2022 elections, Gantz issued a curt warning to Iran that Israel’s plans to strike the Tehran regime’s nuclear facilities were more advanced now than at any other time since 2012, during his four-year stint as the IDF’s leading officer. (Photo: Wikimedia / Creative Commons License)