With only a few weeks under its belt, Israel's hard-earned national unity government is struggling to survive, political insiders told Israel Hayom Sunday, citing the growing distrust between leading parties Likud and Blue and White.
As tensions between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz grow, every incident – big or small – seems to fray the coalition further.
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Sunday saw an example for such an embarrassing moment broadcast on leading TV channels, when Gantz, who serves as defense minister and prime minister-designate, was caught on camera protesting the fact that he was denied the opportunity to speak at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting.
Reporters covering the meeting were eventually called back into the room to hear his statement.
This seemingly minor event joins a growing list of incidents between Likud and Blue and White, which still have to hammer out the state budget.
Under Israeli law, if the government is unable to pass the annual budget within 100 days of its formation the Knesset must dissolve, triggering elections.
A Likud official warned Sunday that "the way they [Blue and White] are conducting themselves will make it very difficult for this government to carry on. Will the government fall apart? Probably not in the coming weeks, but I'm not sure it will make it through the winter session."
Also on Sunday, a poll aired by Channel 13 News predicted that were elections held at this time, Likud would win 38 seats and Blue and White – in its current form – would shrink to a mere nine Knesset seats.
The 2019-2020 election campaigns saw Blue and White join forces with the Yesh Atid and Telem parties, winning 33 seats. But the alliance split after Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid and Telem chief Moshe Ya'alon refused to join Netanyahu's unity government.
Following the split, Blue and White was left with 15 seats; Yesh Atid retained 13 and Telem three. Lapid now serves as the opposition leader.
Sunday's poll projected 16 seats for Yesh Atid, further saying that even if it join forces with Blue and White again, the alliance would win only 25 seats – falling short of repeating its performance in the March elections.
The Joint Arab List is expected to retain its power, winning 15 seats.
Yamina, a faction comprising the New Right and National Union parties, would win increase it power from six seats to 11, Yisrael Beytenu would improve its position from seven to eight seats, and Shas would lose a mandate, dropping from nine to eight seats.
United Torah Judaism would retain its seven-seat position, and Meretz was projected to win seven seats as well.
According to the poll, Labor fails to pass the prerequisite four-Knesset-seat electoral threshold, as do Gesher and Derech Eretz.
The survey was held by veteran pollster Camil Fuchs and included 603 Jewish respondents and 102 non-Jewish respondents. The margin of error was 3.9%.
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