Benny Gantz Pulls Blue and White Out of Israel's Election Eight Days Before the Vote

With just eight days to go before Israelis head to the polls on October 27, 2026, former defence minister Benny Gantz announced that he would not run in the upcoming election and that his Blue and White party was withdrawing from the race. The move came after months of dismal polling that left the centrist party facing the real prospect of falling below the electoral threshold needed to enter the Knesset. Gantz stated, 'I will not run in the upcoming elections. I will continue to fight for unity,' taking personal responsibility for the party's failure to build sufficient public support. Following his announcement, all Blue and White party members quit the race, and officials confirmed that Blue and White ballot slips would be removed from polling stations across the country. The withdrawal narrows the field ahead of an election widely seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the 2023 Hamas attack and the three years of wars that followed. Right-wing parties quickly called on smaller parties to consolidate similarly, as political strategists assessed which remaining parties would benefit most from Blue and White's collapse.