Coalition of Change Fractures Over Strategy, Polls

Efforts to coordinate between the "Change Bloc" parties are currently failing, with deepening rifts emerging between party leaders instead of closer alignment. The core disputes revolve around potential future coalition partners and the struggle for leadership of the bloc after the elections, according to Amit Segal in his "Hayom" column.

A central point of contention is the stance on the Arab party Ra'am. Segal reports that Yair Golan favors a government potentially reliant on Ra'am, while Gadi Eisenkot suggests Ra'am might abstain from voting on a government. In contrast, Avigdor Lieberman advocates for disqualifying Ra'am from running in elections and has challenged Eisenkot to clarify his future coalition partners.

Amid these disagreements, Eisenkot is promoting a message that the race for the largest party in the bloc could be crucial for forming the next government. His campaign, according to Segal, is leveraging an internal poll indicating that if the race between his party "Yashar!" and Likud is close, "Yashar!" could reach 37 seats. In this scenario, the parties of Naftali Bennett and Lieberman would significantly weaken.

However, this strategy is not well-received by Bennett and Lieberman, who reportedly object to a single poll dictating significant political moves. Disagreements over leadership have also persisted, with Eisenkot asserting his party's size makes him the natural candidate to lead, a claim Bennett and Lieberman have not committed to accepting. Segal notes the dispute extends beyond seat numbers to differing visions for forming the next government, with Eisenkot aiming for his party to lead the bloc, while Bennett and Lieberman prefer to keep coalition leadership undecided until after the elections. The controversy surrounding Ra'am further complicates these already strained inter-party relations.