Naturally, the political system is slowly waking up to the reality of "after the holidays".
Under the auspices of the trips, the family meals, the prayers and the never-ending days off, the election campaign was put in a semi-freeze.
The campaigns, and with them the campaigners, went on a mini-sabbatical, and except for fragmented field activity and reference to current events, such as the agreement with Lebanon, the voting people in Zion entered a light Tishrei slumber, and waking up from it to the reality of elections around the corner is a matter that requires a day or two of adaptation.
But now the days of grace are over, and the election campaign is coming, as the cliché goes, to the last straight, ahead of a voter's day that may end in a particularly tight photo finish, or as the cliché goes even more significantly - every vote counts.
Gantz between two fronts
The one who stands at the center of the race with the finish line in sight is Benny Gantz, who arrives in the last days before the polls under an all-out attack from home and abroad, and stands at the heart of a political pincer movement of those who, on paper, are his partners in the Bloc of Change: Yair Lapid, and his partner in the state camp Gideon Sa'ar.
Benny Gantz
Subject to an all-out attack, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Yair Lapid.
Sabotage operation in the state camp, photo: Yehoshua Yosef
For a long time, Gantz enjoyed selective immunity from the legal system and the Israeli media, a classic atrocity from the familiar genre.
Claims made regarding his performance as a senior officer who admitted that he knowingly endangered the lives of his soldiers, the case of the hacking of his cell phone, the saga of the "fifth dimension" and other issues were dismissed, and that these are conspiracies by right-wing whistleblowers.
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Now there is a suspicion among those around him that those who brief him on incompetence, or at the very least unsuitability for the prime ministership, are actually factors in Yair Lapid's environment.
Near the Prime Minister, it was decided to attach a straw to the mouth of the mandates of the state camp, and all means are kosher.
Even so, great love did not prevail between the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense.
Gantz, as I recall, claimed that Lapid "hates people", but not loving is one thing, and practical actions are a step up.
Among other things, they complain there about a press briefing against him.
Gantz expressed his dissatisfaction with the sabotage carried out by Lapid at the cabinet meeting on the gas agreement.
There, who underestimated the magnitude of the event, later repeated the words in public at a press conference with Lapid, and this week already claimed that Lapid would not be able to form a government.
This is the formal and prominent line in the campaign.
The open hostility between the offices of the leaders of the Change Bloc is expected to continue at least until ten o'clock at night on the first day of November.
Another wing where Gantz is conducting a fight in Lima is within his party, and that is also where Lapid's hand is stirring, through the ambassador of Yesh Atid to the state camp - that is Gideon Sa'ar.
There are those around the Blue and White party who believe that Sa'ar is tirelessly rowing under the leadership of his party, and would be happy to see him drop to a single-digit number of mandates.
Launch of the "State Camp" campaign for the elections, photo: Gideon Markovich
It was Sa'ar who decided and pushed for the addition of the Chief of Staff to the party baggage - now he is doing everything he can to reduce and reduce his presence in the campaign, especially when he overshadows him and expresses himself in a way that implies that Sa'ar and Elkin are extras without ideological weight and influence on the ideological direction of the party. Sa'ar Convinced that he could bring in the soft right, Gantz was convinced that the already meager vote potential of Sa'ar and his friends with a new hope was exhausted, and he preferred to compete for the votes of the left and Yesh Atid voters. Therefore, for a certain period of time, he pushed Eisenkot to the front of the stage, as much as possible.
But Eisenkot made several "fouls" and provided some statements that harmed the state camp.
In one interview he dared to state the obvious, and stated that a prime minister cannot be sworn in to a position with a low number of mandates - which may not hurt Gantz, but will certainly come back like a boomerang if and when Gantz claims to form a government with a much lower number of mandates than Lapid, for example.
On other stages, Eisenkot spoke candidly about his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which revealed the internal differences of opinion in the joint list, and painted the entire project in shades of hasty opportunism and unreliability.
For Sa'ar, who even so did not feel any special affection for Colonel (Ret.) Eisenkot, this was enough, and with his intervention the former Chief of Staff was sent to rest away from the screens and the podiums.
All that is left for Gantz to do is to give Eisenkot a secondary role in the presentation of the party's vague plan for strengthening internal security, and he even went so far as to call it the "Eisenkot Plan", while more than hinting that in the fictitious government that Gantz is supposed to head, Eisenkot will serve as Minister of Internal Security.
The one who goes up and Lieberman who goes down
Lapid, therefore, can rub his hands with pleasure.
He reaches the last line when the biggest threat to his left is busy putting out fires.
In addition to the pleasure he derives from this, the Prime Minister can also find time to try to help factors that are more popular with him.
In the future they decided to dramatically reduce the resources directed to former Soviet Union veterans, and Lapid even believes that his unequivocal position regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine will flow into the lap of many of the disillusioned Israelis at home.
Lieberman.
Sending distress signals, photo: Dodi Vaaknin
Lieberman began sending distress signals to the Prime Minister's Office.
He found ways to convey the message that our home Israel is getting too dangerously close to the blocking percentage, and that Lapid's greed may send Finance Minister Lieberman home in Gush Etzion - and the entire bloc to the opposition.
From hints and pleas, he recently moved to a loud and assertive demand from Lapid, as well as Malkin, to immediately lower their appeals to the Russian-speaking public.
From Lieberman's point of view, the time has come to pay off the bill that was signed as part of the Nokodim-Ramat Aviv alliance.
The man who actually put Lapid on the chair is now asking to save his own chair - and he responded relatively positively, at least for now.
But never robustness, frequent and hasty changes are a very common work routine in the last line.
In any case, Lapid does not need a victory to continue serving as prime minister.
He doesn't care at all about reaching the sixth election round after drinking from everyone nearby - Lieberman, Gantz, Avoda, Meretz - when he leads as the largest party in the bloc - even if some members of the bloc left party carcasses somewhere on the way to the next round.
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