Blue and White (political party)
History
On 16 February 2015, Benny Gantz completed his term as Chief of the General Staff) and entered a three-year legal cooling-off period in which he could not run for the Knesset, which ended on 2 July 2018. Subsequently, in September 2018, it was reported that Gantz planned to enter politics. On 27 December, the day after the dissolution of the 20th Knesset, Gantz submitted 109 signatures to register a new political party under the name Hosen L'Yisrael ("Resilience for Israel"), officially known in English as the Israel Resilience Party.
History
The Israel Resilience Party initially formed an alliance with Telem), led by former Chief of the General Staff Moshe Ya'alon, in late January 2019, ahead of the April 2019 legislative election. On 21 February 2019, the alliance was joined by Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid in a list called Blue and White). Under the agreement, should the alliance win the election, Gantz and Lapid would rotate the premiership, with Gantz first serving 2.5 years, followed by Lapid completing the term.
History
During the April election, Blue and White won 35 seats, tied with Likud, which narrowly topped the popular vote. However, after Likud's leader Benjamin Netanyahu's inability to form a new government, new elections were called for September of the same year. Blue and White won the election with 33 seats, one more than Likud, but Israeli President Reuven Rivlin first gave Netanyahu the chance to form the new government. Netanyahu was unable to form a government and President Rivlin gave the mandate to lead the process to Gantz, who was also unable to secure a coalition. Therefore, new elections were called for March 2020, in which Likud won three more seats than Blue and White.
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