A Gantz-led government will possess the needed political legitimacy, popular mandate and strategic tools to achieve what Netanyahu couldn't: a war on Gaza, and annexation of the West Bank. 

Experience has taught Palestinians not to pay heed to Israeli elections. But to every rule there is an exception. 

Although it is still true that no Israeli Zionist leader has ever been kind to the Palestinian people, the dynamics of the latest Israeli elections on September 17 are likely to affect the Occupied Palestinian Territories in a profound way. 

Indeed, the outcome of the elections seems to have ushered in a new age in Israel, ideologically and politically. But the same claim can also be made regarding its potential influence on Palestinians, who should now brace themselves for war in Gaza and annexation in the West Bank. 

Former chief of general staff of the Israeli army, Benny Gantz, who had orchestrated the destructive war on the besieged Gaza Strip in 2014, is likely to be tasked with the job of forming Israel's new government. Gantz had recently boasted about sending "parts of Gaza back to the Stone Age". 

There is little discussion in Israeli, and, by extension, western media of Gantz's numerous war crimes during the Gaza war. The focus is mainly placed on the fact that he seems to have finally dislodged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from a position he had held for nearly 13 years, a scenario that was, until recently, deemed inconceivable.  

The leader of the Kahol Lavan (Blue and White) party had plotted the ouster of Netanyahu back in January 2018, when he formed the Israeli Resilience Party. Following several political mergers and a strong showing in the previous elections in April, the centrist politician has finally edged past Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party in the most recent elections.