The puzzle games: the fate of the small parties will decide the fight between Lapid and Netanyahu

About 3 weeks remain until the closing of the lists, which will be a sign of unifications between the fragments of the parties on the right and the left.

Likud is putting heavy pressure on Smotrich and Ben Gvir.

Lapid tries to scare the work and Meretz, so far to no avail.

The goal of both: maximum vote extraction and an arena that will allow you to devote yourself to the two-headed battle

His dew

26/08/2022

Friday, August 26, 2022, 03:30 Updated: 12:39

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In the video: the journey of the chairman of Otzma Yehudit, Itamar Ben Gabir (photo: Yotam Ronan)

This is the great hour of petty politics.

In the next three weeks, all eyes will be on the crises and dramas of the small parties competing in the puzzle games, which will continue until the closing of the lists on September 15.

From the right and the left, among the ultra-orthodox and among the Arabs, all the small players are at this stage busy with bitter ego battles and political and ideological sectarian power plays on the edge of Yod.

In religious Zionism, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir are debating the relationship of forces and the Rechurch, in Balad they are courting Gideon Levi to part with the joint list, and in Torah Judaism there are explosions in the negotiations between Degel HaTorah and Agudat Israel.

On the left they don't even try, or for the sake of gender accuracy, they don't even try: Merav Michaeli firmly refuses any proposal for unification, and since then Zehava Galon's return to the Meretz presidency is even more vehement.

The occupying list that was elected in the primaries in March only strengthened its opposition, and sharpened the arguments of the workers about irreconcilable ideological differences.

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In religious Zionism, Smotrich and Ben Gvir argue about the relationship of power and the Rechurch (photo: Flash 90, official website)

The stars of the hour are the small players in the small parties, but the puzzle games are no less fateful for the big players in the big parties.

Binyamin Netanyahu and Yair Lapid are standing over two boards, which may decide the battle between them for the prime ministership and power.

Netanyahu is playing on the board of religious Zionism and the ultra-Orthodox.

Parts of the left and Arab parties are scattered on Lapid's board.

Both need to put the pieces together to achieve maximum vote extraction, and design an arena that will allow them to dedicate themselves to the two-headed battle without fearing the fate of the bloc and losing tens of thousands of votes below the blocking percentage.

In a mirror image, Netanyahu and Lapid operate according to a simple formula: reduce the number of parties in one bloc, and hope for as many splits as possible in the opposite bloc.

Every small party that does not pass, brings the government closer to the other side.

Netanyahu launched his magic attack on Smotrich and Ben Gvir on Tuesday, in a video in which he launched the slogan that will accompany the puzzle games on the right in the coming weeks - "Only a joint run will ensure a government without the joint".

Netanyahu saw what the polls showed the evening after: that Ben Gvir is more popular than ever and that his separate run endangers the right-wing bloc and deteriorates Smotrich towards the blocking percentage, leaving Netanyahu with two small parties to his right and very few fatties to shave in the last line.

In the meantime, to no avail: the only negotiation that Ben Gvir conducts with Smotrich is through the media, and from survey to survey he is climbing the tree and raising the price. At the same time, Smotrich is considering a union with MK Amichai Shikli, both as a bargaining chip against Ben Gvir but also out of A real interest in connecting with a right-wing refugee who became a right-wing hero when he carried the miracle of the uprising in Naftali Bennett.

Bargaining card with Ben Gvir.

Amichai Shikli (Photo: Flash 90, Noam Rivkin)

According to the best tradition of the last four election systems, the puzzle games on the right continue until the last moment, and the Likud believes that the assembly of Smotrich and Ben Gvir will not break the tradition and end in the union.

There are those around Netanyahu who suspected this week that the battle between them was staged and coordinated, and intended to drag him out until the closing of the lists, and make him pay a price for the bloc's integrity.

In the previous elections, Netanyahu agreed to give armor in Likud to the religious Zionist, and Ofir Sofer was ranked 28th on the list and split after the elections as part of a similar outline.

If Shikli decides in the end to accept Smotrich's offer and give up the armor promised to him in Likud, it will be a kind of barter deal, and someone else from religious Zionism will be placed there in his place.

At Smotrich, on the other hand, they claim that the crisis is serious and real, and even exacerbated in light of Ben Gabir's rising popularity in the polls.

Meanwhile, another headache is growing for Netanyahu, in the ultra-orthodox puzzle, with difficulties in the negotiations between the Torah flag and the Israel Association to sign a joint running agreement.

He will try to put his full weight there as well.

After the trauma of the first elections, in which Naftali Bennett's new right did not pass the threshold of approval, Netanyahu improved his engineering performance and in the three subsequent elections he was able to stir the sectoral politics and create the maximum conditions in his favor.

Refuses any union proposal.

Merav Michaeli (Photo: Flash 90, Avshalom Sashoni)

The board on the left, on the other hand, is much less disciplined and convenient for mixing and building.

Lapid has made it clear in recent weeks that this time, unlike the previous elections, he will not spare the small parties in the bloc and will not avoid the big party's campaign that can draw their votes.

"I'm done protecting the little ones," he said this week.

Yesterday, at a Yesh Atid faction meeting, he publicly called for unification on the left and warned of a "dangerous" separate run, which would return Netanyahu and Ben Gvir to power.

Like Netanyahu, who scares the right from a government with the joint people, Lapid hopes that the upheaval in the Hark-la-Bibi camp will disintegrate the opposition to unification in the Labor Party, and will create pressure on Michaeli from within, from the field, and from the MKs.

The voices of Balad's rebellion threaten to divide the Arab electoral map into three. Balad's chairman Sami Abu Shahada (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Galon, who had already expressed a willingness to a technical block with the work, and even volunteered to give up first place in advance, was quick to respond in a tweet in which she sent out Michaeli's number.

In the meantime, she rejected and filtered all the references with the same answer: that she would run alone until the end.

In the second part of the puzzle on the left, Lapid does not have much control or influence either: the Arab parties of the joint list do not listen to him, and do not even agree that he is the preferred candidate for Prime Minister.

Balad chairman Sami Abu Shahada's revolting voices threaten to divide the Arab electoral map into three, but could also draw an ideal scenario for Lapid: an independent run by Balad would create the potential to reconnect Ra'am to the joint list. Without Balad's presence, It will be much more convenient for Lapid to rely on them to form a government or as a safety net in the Knesset.

• 2022 election

Tags

• Elections

• Itamar Ben Gabir

• Bezalel Smotrich

• Benjamin Netanyahu