At the beginning of the National Unity Party faction meeting on Monday, party chairman MK Benny Gantz delivered especially harsh remarks against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which he made a connection between the surprising appointment of Vice-Admiral (Res.) Eli Sharvit as ISA Director and the investigation into the Qatar-Gate affair.
Gantz opened his remarks by commenting on Sharvit's appointment and noted that he is an experienced and principled commander who could lead the ISA, but emphasized that he would need to learn the agency in-depth and rely on its professional staff.
This being said, Gantz clarified that the main issue is not the candidate's identity, but rather Netanyahu's process, which he called "another process to crush democracy" in an attempt to "challenge the Supreme Court and to face it with a done deal," which could lead to a "constitutional crisis."
Gantz claimed that the move aims to "stain the justice system and security organizations," and directly connected it to the Qatar-Gate affair, stating: "It's not by chance that as the matter of Qatar-Gate progresses, so does his determination to fight the systems that oversee the investigation. The deeper the investigation, the deeper the undermining." He lambasted Netanyahu for not waiting for the Supreme Court to discuss the appointment and called his conduct "irresponsible and maybe even unfair," as he gets close to a "constitutional crisis, G-d forbid."
Gantz stressed that the Supreme Court should first hear the petitions against Director Bar's dissmissal and only then should Netanyahu decide on the appointment, and that the current process is "see through, dangerous, and hypocritical."
During his remarks, Gantz mentioned the hostages in Gaza and criticized the "droplets and foot dragging" on the part of the Prime Minister. He called to prioritize a complete deal that would bring everyone home and claimed that the current intermediate state is good for Hamas and bad for the hostages, who do not have time to wait.