Blue and White party leader says he’s happy IDF soldier’s remains brought back after 37 years, but suggests timing — days before election — was politically motivated
Prime ministerial candidate Benny Gantz on Thursday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of timing the return of the remains of IDF soldier Sgt. First Class Zachary Baumel to Israel after 37 years to serve his political needs ahead of next week’s Knesset elections and said the premier had made “political spin” out of it.
After a complex and secret operation, Baumel’s remains were returned to Israel on an El Al plane via an unnamed third country earlier this week, a military spokesman said Wednesday, without specifying the nation.
Baumel was presumably killed in the First Lebanon War’s battle of Sultan Yacoub in 1982 at the age of 21. He will be buried at 7 p.m. Thursday at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Gantz hailed the operation in an interview with Army Radio on Thursday, saying he had dealt with the issue during his time as IDF chief of staff.
“I support everyone dealing with it — it is an important national and moral duty — and would like to mention Avera Mengistu who is in Gaza and Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, whom we need to invest efforts to bring home. I am happy that one story at least has come to a close,” the Blue and White party chief said, referring to a civilian and the bodies of two IDF soldiers believed to be held by the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip.
But he also accused the prime minister of using the issue for political gain.
“I am happy that he is making political hay [out of it], but I’m happier that Zachary Baumel has returned to a Jewish grave and to his family,” he said.
“Are you saying there was a political consideration in the timing of the publication?” the interviewer asked.
“You said it better than me,” Gantz responded.
Netanyahu vehemently denied the allegation, which had also been voiced by some pundits, in an interview with Israel Radio earlier Thursday morning.
“This is a utter nonsense — the date was determined due to operational considerations that occurred during the last 48 hours, when the various checks were completed,” he said.
In Gantz’s interview, he denounced the premier over his conduct, his various corruption cases, and what he described as failures in security, transportation and other fields.
Gantz also defended calling Netanyahu was a “tyrant in the making,” in an interview with Channel 12 Wednesday.
“This isn’t the Netanyahu I knew, this isn’t the Netanyahu under whom I served,” he said. “Netanyahu no longer has the legitimacy to be the prime minister of Israel.”
The announcement of the return of Baumel’s remains brought to a close a decades-long mission by Baumel’s Jerusalem-based, American-born parents to find their son, which included international pressure campaigns and faint hopes that he may have been captured alive during the brutal Sultan Yacoub tank battle.
On Thursday, Netanyahu was visiting Russia, where President Vladimir Putin confirmed his country’s involvement in returning the remains.
As reported by The Times of Israel