As the latest polls show Labour party leading over Likud, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Likud would not sit in a coalition with the Zionist Camp, the newly named joint list of Isaac Herzog's Labor and Tzipi Livni's Hatnuah, following the March 17 Knesset elections.
" Gaps between Likud and Labor-Hatnua are too big to be contained in one coalition, The Labor Party has chosen a radically left and anti-Zionist list," the Prime Minister said Friday.
Netanyahu quoted several controversial statements by candidates in realistic spots on the Labor list: Member of the Knesset (MK) Merav Michaeli, who once said Israeli mothers should not send their sons to the army, MK Stav Shaffir, who, according to a book on the 2011 social protests, called Hatikva a racist song, Prof. Yossi Yona who said he does not connect to the concept of Zionism and Zuehir Bahloul, who said his Palestinian identity is stronger than his Israeli identity.
"The responsible and nationalist approach of Likud, led by me, does not have a meeting point with Tzipi (Livni) and Buji (Isaac Herzog's childhood name) left-wing list that now is clearly extremist," Netanyahu added.
His comments came after Livni said Hatnua-Labor would not form a unity government with Likud.
"Unity is not a technical matter of giving out portfolios; rather, it must be formed around a path," Livni said. "Netanyahu and Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett's way is one that is deteriorating Israel in every area.
"It's important to understand what the blocs are in this election. There is an extreme right-wing bloc including Likud and Bennett, and their path is clearly not our path," she added.
Likud used the classic election cliché of "who would you like to pick up the phone at 3 a.m." in a new attack ad posted to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Facebook page.
The cartoon clip depicts Herzog and Livni as sitting by a desk with a ringing red telephone – "Obama's rebuke line" – and bickering over who should answer.
"You answer."
"No, you answer."
"But we're in a rotation!"
"Right, so today you need to answer," the argument goes.
Herzog is presented as nervous, cowering behind the table and turning red, while Livni scolds and wags her finger at him, tells him to grow up and says "I'm counting to three."
Then, the words "in the moment of truth, Netanyahu" appear on the screen.
The video was posted after Livni told Army Radio: "The question in this election is not who answers the phone in Jerusalem at 3 a.m.; it's which prime minister will answer Washington at 3 a.m."
"In this election, the question is about who will answer the red telephone in Jerusalem and also, mostly about what will be said on the red phone," Netanyahu wrote in the Facebook post that accompanied the video.
According to Netanyahu, "it's easy to get applause and caresses from the international community; what has to be done is to give in to international pressure and agree to establish Hamastan a second from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, like Tzipi and Buji want."
Netanyahu continued: "This is not my path. As prime minister of Israel, I will continue standing up for Israel's security and national interests of the nation and the state, decisively and firmly."
According to the latest polls, the Zionist Camp faction continues to hold a small but persistent lead over the Likud party, according to a Maariv poll released Friday.
A survey by Maariv gives the Zionist Camp a three-seat lead over Likud, 25 mandates to 22.
A Channel 10 poll Thursday night gave Zionist Camp 24 seats to Likud’s 20, while a Channel 2 poll gave Zionist Camp 25 and Likud 23.
Maariv had Jewish Home in third place with 17 seats, then Yesh Atid 11, Arab parties (Ra’am-Taal/Balad and Hadash) 11, Kulanu 9, United Torah Judaism 7, Shas 6, Yisrael Beytenu 6, and Meretz 6.
The poll featured other positive signs for Zionist Camp leader Isaac Herzog. Sixty percent of the respondents said that his party’s platform represents their socio-economic views.
Herzog’s faction presented its Knesset slate Wednesday, with women and young faces capturing leading 2015 slots, which could be responsible for the Zionist Camp momentum.
But the faction is still weak on security in the eyes of the public, with only 31% identifying with its security platform.
The Maariv poll also showed that the numbers of respondents who said they did not want another Netanyahu term as Prime Minister reached 58%, a 7-point rise over the past two weeks. Still, it is lower than the 66% who said early in the campaign that they want Netanyahu to go.
Only 38% said they want to see another term.
It appears that Netanyahu’s handling of his solidarity visit to France after the series of terrorist attacks did not harm him, despite some in the press focusing on several “gaffes.” Fifty-four percent said he represented Israel well, while 32% disagreed and 14% did not know.
Fifty-one percent said Netanyahu’s calls for French Jews to move to Israel were appropriate, but 40% said they were out of line. Nine percent said they did not know.
The polls suggest that Herzog’s Zionist Camp and Netanyahu’s right-of-center Likud could both struggle to form a coalition, and that if the figures hold firm, some kind of unity government between them might become a likely option. However, the electorate has proved itself volatile in years past, and the poll findings are likely to keep shifting in the weeks ahead.