In two parties in the center of the map, 31 members of the Knesset are waiting for one person: former Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot. Will he choose a general like him, join Blue and White and assist in its transformation into a ruling party: Prime Minister Gantz, Foreign Minister Sa’ar and Defense Minister Eisenkot? Or will he choose the second largest party and be Lapid’s defense minister? Some of the Blue and White people are already grinning: “Never have so many waited for so few,” said the party this week. And yet they are waiting.
Although his electoral value has not been proven in the polls, and no one can say what his positions are, Eisenkot is considered an “asset” for the center-left wing, a lover of generals, who woos with offers for positions that have not yet been obtained. Eisenkot, for his part, comes to meetings, collects offers and will deliver his message as his value increases. So far he has met with Prime Minister Lapid and Ministers Trooper and Saar and even with MK Matan Kahane who suggested that he join him as a third party. Eisenkot can make a decision close to the submission of the lists in September, but Blue and White and Bish Atid believe that he will do so very soon.
The message dance
In the meantime, Blue and White-Tikva New Hope launched a campaign, videos and interviews on every possible platform. The goal is to clean up remnants of the past from sitting in the government with Netanyahu, which may steal mandates for Lapid – and also try to position Gantz head-to-head with him. On the other hand, Lapid, who has no burden of proof, actually diverts the fire from Netanyahu strategically so as not to strengthen him.
Blue and White is trying to position itself as someone who can form a government with the ultra-Orthodox while Lapid has a “glass ceiling”, for his part, Lapid leaves after a month as prime minister in a broad unity government campaign (which is very similar to that of Kahl) and marks the joint list as a red line. Until a week The latter was not engaged in a mere campaign, but in adapting it to the image of the Prime Minister and building the image of the statesman.
In his first week in office he went to meet President Macron in France, then he hosted US President Biden in Israel and this week he dropped by for lunch at Abdullah’s royal palace in Jordan. In between he worsened the tone towards Russia, which was seen as a political mistake. But the mandates increased by four in most polls and in A happy future. “Only time will tell if he acted correctly,” said those around him, “but he acted according to the dictates of his conscience.” There are also those who claim that in the Ukrainian-Russian public in Israel, Lapid’s aggressiveness towards Russia will benefit him electorally.
Blue and White said this week that those running the campaign are Gantz’s people from the previous elections, a new hope has a place at the table but Gantz dictates the line. “There is no more cockpit,” said a senior member of the party, “my son is in charge and my son decides.” The party appointed Minister Farkash HaCohen to formulate an economic platform in view of the cost of living crisis, which includes free preschool education for working parents, upgrading the import reform and more. The side of the economic right, which has joined in the meantime from Tikva New Hope, is expected to set the tone in the platform by cleaning up two issues dear to Gantz’s heart: agriculture and military pensions.
Lieberman’s options
In the meantime, the economic crisis does not wait and in the familiar dynamic crisis chases crisis. Lapid announced that he had resolved the bread crisis, but the crisis with the teachers immediately rose to a high pitch in preparation for the signing of a new agreement. The Minister of Finance is reducing the tax on gasoline towards the end of the week, but it will also be preceded by the crisis of employment of daycare workers and the expected increase in prices there as well, and of course the rise in electricity prices. The election period until November 1 plus at least 45 days until a government is formed can be an opportunity for Lieberman or attrition as it was for Kahlon.
Lieberman’s challenge: turn lemons into lemonade and try to generate an electorate in light of his decline in the polls, and he has three options. One, to maintain the image of the “keeper of the cash register”, anti-populism, he can hide behind the recommended policy of the treasury clerks for three months, offer solutions in the form of the text of the proposal for teachers and let the wave pass.
There are two problems with this approach. On the one hand, Treasury Director General Ram Belnikov, who brings and brings for the minister, has accumulated mileage of friction with the heads of the departments. The ministry claims that the period is beginning to remind them of the days of Shay in Abed, but while he was a political appointment from the list of all of us, Belnikov is a creation The palm of the budget department and those who hoped the office would take the professional side – suffer weekly disappointments and quarrels. On the other side is Prime Minister Lapid who will prefer solutions that will please the public and not campaigns by the Likud and the ultra-Orthodox about the cost of living.
The second option is simple: election economy. to open his pocket and prevent criticism from his partners in the government and his competitors for the mandates as voiced against him this week one after the other by Chairman Meretz and the members of the Labor Party. Kahlon who chose this path ended his political career battered and bruised. This way he will also lose the treasury boys who will not hesitate to make it difficult for him in any way A crisis that he will seek to solve.
The middle way, then, would be to choose the crisis that he solves and carry it to the polls. This is how Kahlon acted in the first three years of his tenure and was praised. The advantage: once he has a good relationship with the heads of the departments and his people in the office, they will give him, in order to solve targeted issues, what he will need to make it big.
Shaked and Handel’s bet
The Zionist Spirit Party went live this week in agony: without expecting to pass the blocking percentage, when the right and the left began to hit it to leave Handel and Shaked far behind. The two signed the union documents smiling, the launch event was enthusiastic and the hall was full of supporters, but the stakes are high: the more they try to keep the complex message they agreed on – a broad government even under Netanyahu – the greater the attack will be. On paper, the new product should have buyers: religious Zionist and state right voters who do not want Sa’ar combined with Gantz and do not want Smotrich combined with Ben Gvir. But the reviewers claim otherwise.
It’s not just that the religious Zionism led by Smotrich (the former partner) was the first to attack: “Her final defection from the national and right-wing camp and her choice to team up with Yoaz Handel, who opposes the right-wing government led by Netanyahu, something that will once again lead to the establishment of a left-wing government with the Arab parties that support terrorism.” Around Smotrich, it is believed that Shaked and Handel are directing the campaign against the party united with Ben Gabir.
In the morning, Blue and White members also joined in a goal-oriented campaign from the other side: “A vote for the Zionist spirit is a vote for Netanyahu. The facts are that Minister Shaked has already tried to produce a narrow government headed by Netanyahu in this Knesset” (Urit Parkash HaCohen). As much as Handel would like to escape identification with Netanyahu’s government, Shaked will establish this and one way or another they will be required to clarify where they stand this time. Those who hoped that this election system would be less Bibi/RLB are being deceived as the days go by. Shaked and Handel’s Achilles heel is the heart of the political matter.