If immediately after the announcement of the dissolution of the government it seemed that we were once again facing a belligerent election campaign, the developments of the last few days point in the opposite direction.
At least for the two camp leaders, Benjamin Netanyahu and Yair Lapid, their faces are not the edges but the center.
for a change.
The center, by definition, does not like extremism, which means that Netanyahu and Lapid will try to moderate, calm and blur differences.
This is good for the Israeli public.
Netanyahu held another sedative meeting yesterday with MK Dudi Amsalem, one of the most blatant voices in the Likud in the past year. The one that left him in the previous rounds, the one that separates him from the dream 61 seat threshold.
Aiming at the soft right.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
This approach to Netanyahu is substantial and political.
A leader of his magnitude is expected at this stage of his private and public life to behave stately and radiate a unifying spirit.
But beyond that, turning to the center is also expected to pay off politically.
Assuming that Bennett goes home, Netanyahu has no reason to fear that Shaked, led by the right, will give Lapid and not him the mandate to form a government.
Certainly the rest of his camp parties would prefer him over others.
So the lost voices for him, the state right, are parked at Saar, Ganz and even Lapid.
Therefore, if in the previous campaigns Netanyahu was the one who helped Ben Gvir pass the blocking percentage, this time he should confront the active MK. This is a quarrel that both sides will enjoy. The experimental government "emphasized the SAA in their eyes.
But not only Netanyahu will turn to the center, but also Lapid.
The designated prime minister has always rejected the label attached to him as a leftist.
He claims he is at the center.
In the upcoming elections, his people say, he will avoid a quarrel with Merav Michaeli or Nitzan Horowitz over left-wing votes.
Instead he will try to attract soft right-wing voters from Saar and Magnetz and even from the Likud.
In fact, this is a mirror image of Netanyahu's move.
Will try to attract right-wing voters.
Lapid, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Here is an example.
Last weekend, Lapid sent an angry letter to European Foreign Minister Joseph Burrell over the resumption of nuclear talks with Iran.
For Lapid, just as for Netanyahu, there is no action that is not political.
"Your position is particularly disappointing in light of Iran's attempts to assassinate Israelis in Turkey," Lapid wrote.
A wording that seems to have been taken from Netanyahu's letter.
This is his squint to the right.
These are probably the moves and statements we will see from both sides until the election, when they will take place, if at all.
Were we wrong?
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