Can Gantz’s ‘hostage government’ idea break Israel’s political deadlock?

Benny Gantz’s six -month government’s proposal to return all hostages and adopt a Haredi bill is exactly what Israel needs, but it does not deal with the main roadblocks.

On Saturday evening, Benny Gantz, head of Party Blue and White, was held in front of the cameras and offered Israel a simple agreement: to build a short and concentrated government on the government “in hostage-reédition and service support” for six months, set a date of election agreed for the spring of 2026, and to spend the temporary period on two tasks.

First, bring each hostage home. Second, pass a universal conscription framework which deals with service as a national obligation, with real paths for military or civil services and less shortcomings.

In ordinary English, Gantz wants a unit firm with an expiration date and a close mission. He insists that he will not join alone, calling the opposition chief Yair Lapid and Yisrael Beyté, Avigdor Lieberman, to come with him, and repeats that his goal is not to “save Netanyahu”, but to save the hostages.

Pidyon Shvuyim is a deep Jewish imperative, the redemption of captives. This is why hostage families have established the country’s moral compass since October 7, 2023. Today, the official Israeli count says that terrorist groups in Gaza hold around 50 hostages, at least 28 of them confirmed the dead. About 20 are supposed to be alive, with a serious concern for two others.

The government says that it will resume negotiations, “according to our conditions”, after Hamas indicated the opening to a new mediated proposal. The contours of this proposal have changed, but the principle is clear: any serious matter requires choices that could break the current coalition.

Now the second pillar, the project. The Supreme Court of Israel judged in 2024 that, in the absence of a new law, the State must write ultra-Orthodox students from the Yeshiva and stop funding establishments whose students escape the service. This decision has put a political compromise for several decades on a legal clock.

Since then, the government has requested a new bill. Each version is a fuse. Tighten the enrollment and the Haredi parties threaten to bolt. Discount it and the court, the army and the wider public revolt.

Gantz tries to cut the two knots with a single rope: a close government and limited in time that only exists to pass a hostage agreement and a service frame, then sends the country to the polls. He also says, ostensibly, that an agreement is achievable. And there is political oxygen for this assertion. Lapid offered a parliamentary “security net” of 24 voices for any hostage agreement, no counterpart, just bring them home. If the extreme right left the coalition, the votes would always be there to adopt the agreement in theory.

In practice, this is why it will probably not happen.

Reasons why Gantz’s proposal will probably pass through the meshes of the net

First, the Prime Minister’s incentives. Benjamin Netanyahu pointed out that he would negotiate, but “in the words of Israel”, while planning extended military operations. He governs by balancing the partners to his right who oppose concessions in a hostage agreement and the partners of its ultra-Orthodox flank which require a softer law. A six -month unit wardrobe that passes the two would solve the problems of Israel and create its own. It would collapse the even lever effect which maintains this intact coalition.

Netanyahu can also say that he does not need Gantz if the Lapid safety net exists, which allows him to pocket the lever effect of the offer without paying the political price of a real reset of the unit.

Second, the mathematical coalition. The bill is an existential question for the Haredi parties. The court’s decision is final and the patience of the public is thin. Any significant bill may explode the coalition. Any cosmetic bill may be thrown in court. This is why it continues to come back in crisis, week after week.

A temporary unit wardrobe would absorb the explosion so that the country can move forward, which is precisely why existing partners will try to defuse it before it is on.

Third, Gantz’s lever effect is lower than it was. The polls in recent days have its blue and white party hovering close, or even plunging below, the electoral threshold. The leaders of the rival opposition fear that he will waste center-left votes, as he arrived in Meretz in 2022, and they have little appetite to lend him political oxygen.

This makes it more difficult to assemble a credible range of unit which can enter together and go out together six months later.

Fourth, the deficit in trust. The Israelis remember the “rotation” unit agreement of 2020 which collapsed in acrimony. Gantz always wears the scars to sit with Netanyahu. Netanyahu always believes that he can survive the rivals rather than empower them. Confidence is not a policy, but in Israel, it is a tool of governance, and there is not much left.

However, let’s clearly say what should be obvious. A six -month -old government with two jobs is exactly what Israel needs. The hostages pass first. It is not a slogan. It is a choice of policy. If twenty Israelis are still alive in Gaza, every day counts. A government that deals with “bringing them home” like its only northern star is more likely to take the necessary political risks, to use the Lapid safety net and to support the price.

The same goes for the service. Most Israelis are already carrying the military and reserve burden. A fair service framework, with real civil service tracks and real application, would strengthen social cohesion and FDI. The court has already forced the question to the present.

The next regular election of Israel is currently scheduled for October 27, 2026. GANTZ proposes to move it modestly in the spring of 2026, after a short sprint to adopt the two most urgent decisions that the country is confronted. It is not radical. It is responsible.

So where does that leave us? With the good idea and a bad prognosis. Netanyahu’s survival instincts, the red lines of the coalition, the Gantz survey slideshow and the bitter lessons from the past make this plan that can be left the podium and enter the plenum. I hope I am wrong. If Gantz, Lapid, Lieberman and Netanyahu can surprise the nation and form a half -yearly government that returns the living and buried a broken project system, I will be the first to write that I have been uncomfortable.

Until then, expect more discourse on “terms” and “timing”, more ultimatums of extremes and more hesitation. The hostages do not have this time. They need a government that behaves like a rescue team, not a discussion group.