Israel: Ahead of elections, Benjamin Netanyahu’s top rivals team up

Benjamin Netanyahu is facing his most formidable election challenge yet after his top rival teamed with another large opposition party to run together in Israel’s April 9 vote.

Former military chief Benny Gantz’s new Israel Resilience party and former Finance Minister Yair Lapids Yesh Atid announced their alliance early on Thursday after marathon talks, saying they were motivated by national responsibility.

The move paved the way for a third ex-military chief, Gabi Ashkenazi, to join the list in addition to Moshe Yaalon, strengthening its security credentials — an all-important issue in Israeli elections.

Under the agreement, Gantz and Lapid would rotate as the prime minister if their alliance forms the next government. Gantz, whose party has been polling strongest after Netanyahu’s Likud, would serve first, for two and a half years.

“Everything is fluid,” said Abraham Diskin, a professor emeritus of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “I think we are going into a very exciting election and there are too many parameters that are going to be decided at the very last moment. Polls have shown Likud best poised to form the next government, with the support of religious and nationalist partners, and its not clear whether the new alliance will change an election picture already clouded by multiple corruption allegations against Netanyahu. Polls have been divided and preceded consolidation in the Prime Minister’s right-wing bloc.”

Two religious nationalist parties joined forces on Wednesday, and some politicians called for further tieups before the deadline for submitting election slates later on Thursday.

Corruption allegations

The Gantz-Lapid alliance, while significant, would be eclipsed if Attorney General Avihai Mandelblit announces before the balloting whether he intends to put the Prime Minister on trial.

Polls show that the investigations have not eroded Netanyahus popularity within his base, and he says that he is the victim of a left-wing witch hunt designed to overthrow his nationalist government. But voter sentiment may change if Mandelblit decides against him, and it might also affect prospective coalition partners willingness to sit in his government. Israeli media have reported that a decision is expected within the next few weeks.

Another wild card is the fate of some of the smaller parties that are currently in parliament, but may not win enough votes to return to the legislature. Their lost votes could make the difference between a nationalist bloc led by Netanyahu or a center-left government led by Gantz and Lapid.

Stark choice

Likud has been trying to paint Gantz, whose security position is close to Netanyahu’s, as a reckless leftist whose government would have to depend on the support of Arab parties.

In a statement following his alliance with Lapid, Likud said: The choice is clear. Either a leftist Lapid-Gantz government backed by a blocking majority of Arab parties or a right-wing government led by Netanyahu.

The new alliance prompted calls for further consolidation of Israel’s fragmented political landscape. The leader of the socialist Meretz party asked the Labor party to negotiate a tie-up and Education Minister Naftali Bennett, chairman of the nationalist New Right party, called on Netanyahu to team with Finance Minister Moshe Kahlons Kulanu Party and former Defense Minister Avigdor Libermans Yisrael Beiteinu, the Ynet news website reported.

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