Gabi Ashkenazi still undecided on entering politics

Gesher starts campaign by attacking Gantz.

JANUARY 21, 2019 20:06

Updated: JANUARY 22, 2019 09:03

General (Ret.) Gabi Ashkenazi, former IDF Chief of General Staff and Chairman Of The Board of the Rashi Foundation at the 7th Annual JPost Conference in NY (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM) — General (Ret.) Gabi Ashkenazi, former IDF Chief of General Staff and Chairman Of The Board of the Rashi Foundation at the 7th Annual JPost Conference in NY

(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)

Former IDF chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi has not made a final decision on whether to enter politics, and if so, with which party, a confidant who spoke to him on Monday told The Jerusalem Post.

Ashkenazi denied a report in the Yediot Aharonot newspaper that said he has made a firm decision to enter politics with either Yesh Atid or fellow former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz’s Israel Resilience (Hosen L’Yisrael) Party. The report quoted “political officials who met with him recently.”

The report said Ashkenazi would agree to be the #2 of either Gantz or Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid.

“I would join if it can help bring about dramatic change,” Ashkenazi was quoted as saying.

Ashkenazi is considered a valuable political recruit, not only because of his military background but also because of his socioeconomic experience as chairman of the Rashi Foundation, which is dedicated to assisting the underprivileged in Israel, particularly children in the geographic and social periphery.

Another former IDF chief of staff, Moshe Ya’alon, told Army Radio on Monday that political hookups will take place next month and “differing opinions on the Palestinian issue would not be allowed to get in the way.”

But the likelihood of Gantz and MK Orly Levy-Abecassis running together took a hit Sunday when Levy-Abecassis’s Gesher Party attacked Gantz in a campaign ad she posted on social media.

The ad mocked Israel Resilience’s ads by using their same army-green color but depicting statistics about poor kids and closed businesses, followed by a call to “remind the generals that there is life outside the battlefield.”

The Gesher ad concluded with an alarm clock and the slogan: “This is the time to wake up.”

Gantz has actually been involved in multiple socioeconomic organizations since leaving the army. A spokesman for Gantz declined to respond to the ad.