In campaign clips, ex-army chief boasts how many terrorists died on his watch, also says seeking peace ‘not shameful’: Israelis shouldn’t have to tell children we ‘didn’t even try’
20 January 2019
Israel Resilience party leader Benny Gantz on Sunday released a series of campaign videos titled “Only the strong survive,” mostly highlighting successful IDF operations in the Gaza Strip during his time as chief of staff.
The videos were released with much of the country trying to figure out where the laconic Gantz stands. They indicate that he’s positioning himself firmly in the center with a tough on terror message, but also a willingness to try and make peace.
One video takes credit for the IDF’s destruction of 6,231 Hamas targets in the 2014 Gaza war under Gantz’s command, boasting that “parts of Gaza were sent back to the Stone Age.”
Another shows footage from funerals of Hamas members with a counter on the screen from 0 to 1,364, the number of terrorists the IDF said it killed in Defensive Edge. It said the “three and a half years of quiet” in the Palestinian enclave in the years that followed were thanks to Gantz.
A third video showed footage of a 2012 Israeli airstrike that Gantz ordered targeting Ahmed Jabari, the acting head of Hamas’s military wing and mastermind of the Gilad Shalit kidnapping in 2012.
Despite the militaristic nature of the videos, Gantz also released a fourth campaign saying Israel needed to seriously pursue peace with the Palestinians.
Read more at https://www.timesofisrael.com/only-the-strong-survive-gantzs-new-campaign-videos-laud-his-idf-bona-fides/
