Israeli media play game of polls

Labor Party Chairman Avi Gabbay barely had three days to enjoy the flattering polls that were released Nov. 1. The Hadashot Channel 2 poll gave the Labor Party under his leadership 21 seats, while the Channel 10 News poll gave it 19 seats. Meanwhile, both polls showed the Likud Party losing an average of 5 seats.

Pundits and commentators all complimented him for this achievement. Some even spoke about the strengthening of the left-wing bloc led by Gabbay and Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid, and of the possibility of bringing down the right-wing government. However, while the chairman of the Labor Party was reveling in his achievement, the two senior partners in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government — Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman — were coordinating a plot against Gabbay that would knock him to the political ground floor in a single blow.

In two separate interviews with two different news shows for Hadashot News Company Nov. 4, with just two hours in between, both men declared unequivocally that they would not be part of a government formed by Gabbay. "I will say it as clearly as I can: The Kulanu Party will not be a fig leaf for a left-wing government," Kahlon answered, when asked if he would sit in a coalition headed by Gabbay. "I am part of the national camp," he continued, "unlike the Labor Party or whatever happens to be leading it. I opposed the disengagement [from the Gaza Strip], and I support the land of Israel and a united Jerusalem. That is why I see no way for Kulanu to join the Labor Party's left-wing government."

Liberman called Gabbay "irrelevant" and said, "There were at least two parties — [his] Yisrael Beitenu and [Kahlon's] Kulanu — which would never join a coalition with Gabbay." He added, "It would be impossible to put together a coalition without these two parties. … He doesn't have a chance. The whole idea can be erased from the lexicon."