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‘Turtle’ Gantz too slow to make decisions, dragging party down, Blue and White members say

“We wait whole days for decisions, even the simplest ones. All the competing parties are galloping ahead and we’re being left behind,” a Blue and White official said.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Senior members of the Blue and White party are claiming that its leader, Benny Gantz, takes too long to make decisions and is thus slowing down the campaigning for the upcoming elections, Israel Hayom reported Sunday.

Yair Lapid, former head of the Yesh Atid party, is number two on the Blue and White list; former IDF chiefs Moshe (Bogie) Ya’alon and Gabi Ashkenazi are third and fourth, respectively.

“This time, too, we are always waiting for Benny to decide,” one senior party official told the Israeli daily. “We wait whole days for decisions, even the simplest ones. The feeling is that all the competing parties are galloping ahead and we’re being left behind.”

“At the end, most of the decisions in Blue-and-White are made by Benny,” he continued, “so most of the decisions get stuck. Bogie and Gabi are used to it, and Lapid has also gotten used to it. Those three already know that the ‘cockpit meetings’ end without a decision because of Benny’s lengthy decision-making process.”

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Another said that Gantz’s overly-deliberate style is harming the party.

“It’s affecting the list. The bottom line is that we’re talking about three chiefs-of-staff and the decision-making of a journalist in BaMachaneh [the IDF newspaper],” he said, in reference to Lapid, who began his journalism career and fulfilled his army service as a military reporter for the paper.

Another detractor called Gantz “a kind of turtle,” considering the time he allegedly takes to make decisions.

The party officially defended its leader in a statement, saying, “Thanks to Benny Gantz’s decision-making process, Blue and White enjoyed an unprecedented achievement. We are currently forming a strategy that will lead us to replace the government in September, and we will do this despite all the critics.”