Gantz was a paratrooper who rose to serve as the chief of the IDF general staff from 2011 to 2015. He entered politics by launching Israel Resilience in late 2018, then merged it into Blue and White, the chief challenger to Likud, for the April 2019 election. He served as Benjamin Netanyahu’s defense minister from 2020 to 2021, leading the war against Hamas in May 2021, and held the same post under Naftali Bennett.
Photo: Avi Ohayon, Israeli Government Press Office