Call it a power play, opportunism or whatever you want to call it, but Benny Gantz has seen enough.

“If you choose the path of zealots and drag the country into the abyss, we will be forced to leave the government,” Gantz declared, in a televised weekend address.

“You” is Benjamin Netanyahu. The “zealots” are Israel’s far-right, to whom Netanyahu’s unfortunately beholden. Netanyahu’s no moderate himself, of course, but he came to rely in recent years almost exclusively on what I’ll indelicately describe as out-and-out fanatics — dangerous ultranationalists whose abhorrent “views” (note the scare quotes) have drawn public condemnation from the US State Department.

I realize not all readers are apprised of this, but it’s important, so I’ll state it unequivocally: Israel was never a democracy (Palestinian Israelis are de facto second-class citizens), and to the extent you could pretend before, you can’t now. Netanyahu completed an autocratic metamorphosis last year, when he tried to overhaul the judiciary. Critics (serious critics I mean, not just professional Netanyahu detractors) now speak openly of the Netanyahu “regime.”

If polling’s any indication (and in this case it surely is) the Israeli public vastly prefers Gantz. Although he can’t single-handedly topple the government, his exit from the war cabinet would legitimize international criticism of Netanyahu’s handling of the conflict.

Gantz gave Netanyahu less than a month to get the hostages back, put forward a credible plan for a post-war Gaza and join efforts to normalize ties with Saudi Arabia, among other demands.

Between domestic unrest, the Biden administration’s decision to pause some weapons shipments to the IDF, a growing international outcry against the civilian death toll in Gaza, proliferating genocide accusations, the prospect of a symbolic ICC arrest warrant and now Gantz’s ultimatum, Netanyahu’s under a ton of pressure.

Do note: Gantz is no dove. He’s a military man. And he was emphatic that neither “friends nor enemies [can] impose a Palestinian state” on Israel.

Rather than address the substance of Gantz’s criticisms, Netanyahu trafficked in slander and demagoguery, as would-be dictators are wont to do. He called Gantz’s ultimatum “washed-up words” and accused the former IDF chief of advocating for the “defeat for Israel,” the “abandonment of the hostages” and “the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

Gantz said no such thing. If anyone’s abandoned the hostages, it’s Netanyahu. On Saturday, scores of protestors gathered in Tel Aviv to demand the government agree to a ceasefire if it means bringing home the rest of the captives. Some demonstrators called for elections. Others for Netanyahu’s ouster. Over the last several days, the IDF recovered the bodies of four Israelis who were killed on October 7.

Gantz’s ultimatum came just days after defense minister Yoav Gallant called Netanyahu’s war strategy  “dangerous” and indicated he won’t countenance any plan for Gaza that involves the installation of a provisional government administered by the Israeli military.

Gantz suggested, as I did last week, a coalition government of Arabs, Palestinians and perhaps Americans and Europeans too. Plainly, Gaza would be demilitarized in such a scenario.

“You know very well what needs to be done,” Gantz scolded. “The Netanyahu of a decade ago would have done the right thing. Are you able to do the right and patriotic thing today?”

Netanyahu’s response to Gantz suggests the answer’s a hard “no.”

Gantz warned that in the event his June 8 deadline passes with no agreement from Netanyahu, he (Gantz) will “turn to the people.” He didn’t elaborate on how he might go about felling the government. He’d presumably need some Likud defectors, although I don’t pretend to know the legislative math.

Gantz framed Netanyahu’s predicament as a choice between “responsibility and lawlessness,” and between “victory and disaster.”