Blue and White (Political Party)

Blue and White brought together Gantz’s Israel Resilience, Lapid’s Yesh Atid and Moshe Ya’alon’s Telem around the shared objective of ending Benjamin Netanyahu’s long tenure as prime minister.[2] Its component organizations had different backgrounds: Israel Resilience was a centrist party founded in December 2018, Yesh Atid had been founded in 2012, and Telem was a right-wing party formed in January 2019.[2] Gantz headed the combined electoral slate, whose first four candidates were Gantz, Lapid, Ya’alon and Gabi Ashkenazi.[8] Three of these leading figures—Gantz, Ya’alon and Ashkenazi—were former chiefs of staff of the Israel Defense Forces.[2][8]

The name Blue and White refers to the colors of Israel’s flag, and the original agreement to combine forces was presented by Gantz and Lapid as an act of “national responsibility.”[1] The alliance’s 2019 campaign slogan was “Israel above all else.”[9] Its founding leadership arrangement included a proposed rotation of the premiership between Gantz and Lapid, conditional on the alliance successfully forming a government.[8] That proposal was distinct from the later rotation agreement Gantz negotiated with Netanyahu after the original alliance broke apart.[1]

The party’s political program combined security priorities with institutional, social and religious-policy proposals.[1] Its platform described Israel as the national home of the Jewish people while committing to minority rights, civil liberties, separation of powers and judicial independence.[10] It also presented the party as an alliance of moderates seeking to bridge divisions in Israeli society and opposing incitement and divisiveness.[10] In its 2021–2022 incarnation, the party emphasized preserving established institutions, an Israeli national identity inclusive of Druze and Arab citizens, and sensitivity to international opinion on Israeli-Palestinian issues.[4]

The organizational meaning of Blue and White changed after its establishment: initially the name of a three-party electoral alliance, it was retained by Gantz’s Israel Resilience faction following the 2020 split.[3] The party’s website distinguishes between the underlying organization and its parliamentary representation, defining “the party” as Hosen LeYisrael, the Blue and White faction, or another faction representing Hosen LeYisrael in the Knesset.[11] Gantz’s grouping later participated in National Unity, which combined Blue and White with New Hope for the November 2022 election.[5]

Gantz registered Hosen LeYisrael, or Israel Resilience, on December 27, 2018, and presented its election positions on January 29, 2019, when he announced that he would run for prime minister and was joined by former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon.[12] Before entering party politics, Gantz had left military service in 2015 after 38 years and devoted time to social initiatives, assistance to disadvantaged groups and efforts to strengthen social solidarity.[13] His new party identified education, health, welfare, economic growth, reducing social gaps and maintaining Israel’s strategic and security advantages among its priorities.[14]

On February 21, 2019, Gantz and Lapid announced that their parties would run together as Blue and White ahead of the April 9 election.[1] Telem also joined, and Ashkenazi became one of the new slate’s leading figures.[8] Gantz was to serve as prime minister for the first two and a half years if the alliance formed a government, followed by Lapid for the remainder of the term.[1] The announcement specified November 2021 as the proposed handover date, after which Gantz would become defense minister.[8]

In the April 9 election, Blue and White received 1,125,881 votes, approximately 26.1 percent of valid votes, and won 35 Knesset seats.[15] Its final seat total equaled Likud’s, correcting initial results that had suggested a 36–35 advantage for Likud.[16] Netanyahu received the first opportunity to assemble a governing coalition but failed, and the Knesset was dissolved without a new government being formed.[16] The center-left bloc lacked sufficient seats to replace the government, while Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Liberman declined to join unless the ultra-Orthodox parties made substantial concessions.[12]

Blue and White again ran jointly under Gantz’s leadership in the election for the 22nd Knesset.[14] On September 17, 2019, it received 1,151,214 votes, or 25.95 percent, and won 33 seats, narrowly ahead of Likud’s 32.[16] Despite becoming the largest list, it could not assemble a governing majority, and no coalition commanding the required 61 seats emerged.[17] The center-left bloc it led held 57 seats, and President Reuven Rivlin gave Gantz the mandate to try to form a government after Netanyahu failed.[12]

Gantz rejected Netanyahu’s coalition proposal, while support from three of the four Arab parties did not provide enough backing for him to form a government.[16] He had also said that he would not include Arab parties in his coalition.[16] Telem members Yoaz Hendel and Zvi Hauser would not support a government backed by the Joint List.[12] Gantz’s unsuccessful efforts led to a third election, scheduled for March 2, 2020.[16]

In that election, Blue and White increased its vote total to 1,217,101, or 26.59 percent, but again won 33 seats, compared with Likud’s 36.[18] Blue and White and Labor–Gesher–Meretz together held 40 seats, leaving no party or obvious coalition with a majority.[18] Rivlin nevertheless gave Gantz the first opportunity to form a government after 61 Knesset members recommended him.[18] A possible minority government relying on outside support from the Joint List encountered opposition inside Blue and White, and Gantz had pledged during the campaign not to rely on that list.[18]

The refusal of Hendel and Hauser to support such a government, together with Orly Levy-Abekasis’s departure from the opposing bloc, blocked that route to office.[12] Gantz instead moved toward a unity arrangement with Netanyahu, with both leaders citing the COVID-19 pandemic and its public-health and economic consequences as a major reason to avoid another election.[3] On March 26, Gantz announced that he would explore a national emergency government under Netanyahu, saying, “These are unusual times and they call for unusual decisions.”[18]

Gantz also accepted nomination as Knesset speaker with Likud’s support, breaking with the arrangements Blue and White had made with Lapid and Yesh Atid.[19] Lapid’s faction did not attend the speaker vote, and Yesh Atid and Telem opposed joining a Netanyahu-led government.[19] The alliance separated into its component factions, with Gantz’s Israel Resilience retaining the Blue and White name and Yesh Atid–Telem remaining in opposition.[3] The parliamentary reorganization left Yesh Atid–Telem with 16 members, while Blue and White and the two-member Derech Eretz grouping together accounted for 17 members on Gantz’s side.[3]

Hendel and Hauser formed Derech Eretz after separating from Telem.[2][3] The post-split parliamentary distribution distinguished Blue and White’s 15 coalition seats from Derech Eretz’s two, alongside the 16 opposition seats held by Yesh Atid–Telem.[3] In June 2020, Blue and White announced that Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Einav Kabla, Tehila Friedman and Hila Shay Vazan would enter its faction the following week, bringing its anticipated composition to nine women among 17 members.[20]

Netanyahu and Gantz signed their national emergency government agreement on April 20, 2020.[1] It provided for Netanyahu to serve as prime minister for 18 months, followed by Gantz for a further 18 months.[3] In the government established in May, Gantz became alternate prime minister and defense minister.[3] Blue and White was allocated half the ministerial portfolios, Ashkenazi was to become foreign minister, and the agreement provided for new elections if the High Court disqualified Netanyahu from forming a government.[21]

The government did not survive to the planned rotation.[4] Disputes over a one-year versus a two-year national budget threatened to dissolve the Knesset before Gantz’s scheduled turn as prime minister.[22] The budget deadline expired in late December 2020, triggering the Knesset’s dissolution and an election for March 23, 2021.[1][23]

Blue and White’s support declined after it entered Netanyahu’s government, and some members defected or decided not to stand again.[23] Gantz nevertheless headed its candidate list in the 2021 election.[24] The party won 292,257 votes, 6.63 percent of the total, and eight seats.[23] It then joined Naftali Bennett’s coalition government, with Gantz serving as defense minister.[23] The party remained part of the 2021–2022 coalition.[4]

After the Bennett government collapsed in June 2022, Gantz and Gideon Sa’ar announced that Blue and White and Sa’ar’s New Hope would run together, with Gantz first on the list and Sa’ar second.[1] Their July announcement brought together parties then holding eight and six Knesset seats respectively.[25] Former chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot joined in August, when the grouping became National Unity.[25] The joint effort sought in part to attract center-right voters unwilling to vote for either Netanyahu or Lapid.[1]

Gantz described the government he hoped to establish as “responsible, realistic, secure, and liberal,” rejecting racism and extremism and seeking unity across communities.[1] National Unity won 12 seats in the November 2022 election and entered opposition under his leadership.[5] Its stated differences with Likud included support for established institutions, especially the judiciary, and an inclusive Israeli nationalism encompassing Jewish and non-Jewish citizens.[5] Its members held varying positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.[5]

After the October 7, 2023 attacks, Gantz’s National Unity party joined an emergency government and withdrew in June 2024.[7] In July 2025, following the departures of Eisenkot and Matan Kahana, Gantz and his faction returned to the Blue and White name.[6] The accompanying campaign, titled “Israel is moving to agreements,” emphasized agreement and unity across Israeli society.[6]

On October 19, 2026, Gantz announced that Blue and White would withdraw from the October 27 election after polling below the electoral threshold.[7] The threshold was 3.25 percent, corresponding to four Knesset seats, and Gantz concluded that the party was unlikely to cross it.[26] He took responsibility for failing to attract sufficient support and renewed his call for a broad Zionist unity government.[7] At the time of the withdrawal, the parliamentary faction held eight seats and owed the Knesset 11.7 million shekels, including a 9.7 million shekel election-funding advance.[22]

The already printed Blue and White ballot slips were to be discarded, and the party’s designation was to be removed from polling-station ballot boards.[22] Some 11.5 million party ballot slips had already been printed before the withdrawal.[22] Blue and White was subsequently listed among the parties that would not sit in the 26th Knesset.[26]

Blue and White’s 2019 security platform proposed a regional conference with Arab countries to deepen separation from the Palestinians while safeguarding Israeli security and the army’s freedom of action.[1] It did not use the expressions “two-state solution” or “Palestinian state.”[27] Drafted by representatives of Israel Resilience, Yesh Atid and Telem, the program supported negotiations while opposing unilateral territorial withdrawal.[27] It rejected unilateral disengagement from the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — and withdrawal from settlement blocs, the Jordan Valley, Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.[27]

The party advocated strengthening settlement blocs, treating the Jordan Valley as Israel’s eastern security border and maintaining a united Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.[1] It proposed that historic diplomatic decisions require either a referendum or a Knesset supermajority.[1] Its platform also supported protecting Israeli civilians, pursuing peace arrangements and keeping open the possibility of a future political agreement.[10] Alongside those security commitments, it proposed accelerated economic development and greater freedom of movement in Palestinian Authority territory.[10]

Institutional policy centered on the relationship between Israel’s Jewish national identity and democratic government.[10] The platform stated that democracy should express majority rule while protecting minority rights and civil liberties.[10] It proposed a constitutional process grounded in the Declaration of Independence and committed the party to separation of powers and judicial independence.[10] Another proposed Basic Law would limit a prime minister to eight consecutive years in office.[10]

Equality legislation was a recurring element of the program.[1][10] The 2019 platform called for amending the nation-state law to include equality as a fundamental constitutional principle.[1] Another formulation proposed legislating equality as a Basic Law, either separately from or as a counterweight to the Nation-State Law, to emphasize the rights of non-Jewish citizens.[27] The party’s platform specifically included equality for Arab, Druze and Bedouin citizens, linking the principle to the spirit of the Declaration of Independence.[10]

On religion and state, Blue and White sought to preserve Israel’s Jewish identity and the Sabbath as the national day of rest while allowing limited flexibility in local arrangements.[1] Its proposals permitted public transportation on Shabbat in secular communities where it would not affect observant residents, subject to local-authority decisions.[27] The 2019 program also allowed limited business activity on Shabbat and supported drafting ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students.[1] The platform paired a Jewish public sphere with personal freedom for all citizens, regardless of gender, ethnic community or faith.[10]

Other religious-policy proposals included reform of the kashrut system and a more welcoming conversion system operating according to halakhic rules.[10] In family and civil-status policy, the party supported civil unions and surrogacy for LGBT families.[1] It promised surrogacy legislation that included gay men.[27] Its platform also proposed protections against discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity, civil partnership and changes to adoption legislation.[10]

Education proposals emphasized greater public investment, differentiated according to need, and improved infrastructure and staffing in the geographic and social periphery.[10] The program called for expanded early-childhood education and a gradual move toward free education from early childhood through completion of a university degree.[10] It also proposed expanding the Mimadim Lelimudim scholarship to cover people completing full military service.[10] Greater equality of opportunity in education was among the priorities Gantz identified in his early campaign speeches.[28]

The alliance’s early economic-policy materials differed substantially in scope: Yesh Atid had a platform exceeding 200 pages, whereas Israel Resilience initially offered a small number of statements and two short paragraphs in Gantz’s first election speech.[28] Gantz highlighted the cost of living, action against monopolies and the construction of two new hospitals.[28] Avi Nissenkorn advocated raising the minimum wage, linking old-age pensions to it, reducing income inequality and strengthening health services in outlying areas.[28] The broader party priorities included economic growth, health, welfare and narrowing social gaps alongside security.[14]

Blue and White’s first electoral showing placed a newly assembled list on equal footing with Likud in Knesset seats only months after Gantz founded his party.[16] It then finished one seat ahead of Likud in September 2019 and retained 33 seats in March 2020.[17][18] Yet neither its April tie nor its September lead enabled it to form a government, and the three elections produced a prolonged government-formation stalemate.[2][4] The eventual unity agreement ended that impasse, although its government collapsed later in 2020.[4]

The original alliance combined a centrist party, an established party led by Lapid and Ya’alon’s right-wing Telem, while placing three former military chiefs among its most prominent leaders.[2][8] Public perceptions of its political-security identity nevertheless differed sharply across communities.[29] A survey conducted on March 10–11, 2019, found that 47 percent of Jewish respondents placed Blue and White on the center-left or left, 23 percent at the center and 17 percent on the center-right.[29] Among respondents identifying as right-wing, 67 percent categorized it as left or center-left.[29]

Arab respondents viewed the alliance differently: 51 percent placed it on the right or center-right, while 32 percent expressed no opinion.[29] The party sought to position itself at the center while using messages and leading figures associated with the right.[29] Its later partnership with New Hope similarly sought to reach center-right voters unwilling to support Netanyahu or Lapid.[1]

After the original alliance’s breakup, Blue and White continued as a smaller parliamentary party, winning eight seats in 2021 and participating in Bennett’s coalition.[23] Through National Unity it subsequently joined a 12-seat opposition grouping, while Gantz’s party later participated in the emergency government before withdrawing in June 2024.[5][7] Across these organizational changes, its stated institutional priorities included judicial independence, established democratic institutions and an inclusive national identity for Jewish and non-Jewish citizens.[10][5]

Gantz’s decision to join a Netanyahu-led government reversed his campaign pledge not to do so while Netanyahu faced corruption charges and precipitated the original alliance’s breakup.[3] Lapid and Ya’alon denounced the decision and led their factions into opposition.[3] The alternative of relying on Joint List support had itself divided Blue and White, with two members refusing to serve in a coalition dependent on that support.[3] The unity agreement’s legal enforceability, including what would happen if Netanyahu refused to relinquish the premiership, was unclear.[3] Ultimately, the budget-triggered dissolution prevented the rotation from taking place.[1][23]

The alliance’s Israeli-Palestinian policy also drew criticism over its coherence.[30] Its platform promoted separation while ruling out unilateral disengagement and withdrawal from settlement blocs, the Jordan Valley, Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.[27] In an April 2019 analysis, Yossi Kuperwasser argued that Blue and White had no coherent Israeli-Palestinian policy, characterized its message as emphasizing leadership rather than the distinction between right and left, and assessed most of its prospective voters as coming from center-left circles.[30]