Gant‘z election videos, "almost a photocopy of Netanyahu’s rhetoric"

Benny Gantz, the former Israeli army chief, in a series of four campaign videos for his new political party - “the Israel Resilience” in English - has boasted about how much killing and destruction he committed in Gaza during the war of 2014.

Gantz is candidate for the run-out election of April and intends to take the place of Prime Minister Netanyahu.

One of his campaign videos shows drone footage of a devastated neighborhood in Gaza in August 2014, following Israel’s 51-day assault on the territory, as reported by the Electronic Intifada.

Gantz also boasted how many Hamas targets the IDF destroyed in Gaza (6,231) under his command.

“Parts of Gaza were returned to the stone ages,” is part of the video title.

Asecond video shows a kill-counter on screen accumulating the dead until the number 1,364 is reached.

“The video is another depraved celebration of killing,” according to the EI.

All videos conclude with Gantz’s campaign slogan: "Israel before everything".

For David Weinberg, vice president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, “Gantz’s ad reflects distorted and hubristic thinking. It doesn’t reflect Israeli values,” he wrote in the Jerusalem Post.

Above the freedom to interpret, the Electronic Intifada wants to restore certain facts.

The website reminded that the attack on Gaza in 2014 and commanded by Gantz, killed 2,251 Palestinians, including 1,462 civilians.

Among them were 551 children, according to an independent investigation commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council.

According to this report, fewer than 800, or about a third of those killed, were combatants – far fewer than the 1,364 “terrorists” about whose killing Gantz boasted.

“This means that Gantz considers Palestinian civilians to be legitimate targets – effectively an admission to war crimes,” emphasized the Electronic Intifada.

Furthermore, on Sunday 27, the investigative website +972 reported that “Media Town” a Gaza-based company accused Gantz to have stolen it’s footage for his political campaign.

Media Town further claimed they were the only company to have flown a drone over Gaza during the war.

The company requested the removal of the video, without receiving a response.

In regards to the content of the videos, writer Mohammad Makram Balawi for the MEMO highlighted that they “use the same formula of intimidation and hope. It is almost a photocopy of Netanyahu’s rhetoric.”