The Blue and White party's election campaign has been characterized by arguments, friction, and fighting. Despite the merger between Benny Gantz's Israel Resilience Party and Yesh Atid, which occurred on the last day for parties to submit Knesset lists to the Central Election Committee, it appears that the two factions aren't maintaining the requisite level of cooperation. Workers in the parties' headquarters have been expressing growing frustration about the methods that force them to shuttle between two offices, and feel that the merger is about to fall apart. However, Gantz and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid are working to calm things down and are looking at ways of working together more closely.
The problems started the same day Gantz and Lapid announced they would be running on a joint ticket. After spending several hours hammering out a basic framework, the division of labor, and other details, Gantz's people realized that Lapid had no intention of breaking up the Yesh Atid offices and would be running a simultaneous independent campaign. It never occurred to Lapid to give up his staff or his advisers.
Nor did Lapid close the Yesh Atid headquarters on Yitzhak Sadeh Street in Tel Aviv, where his staff spend most of their time. The Blue and White party's main office is located at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds in the north of the city, and Gantz and his staff work from there. That is where party members take an active part in election business. Moshe Ya'alon, whose Telem party joined forces with Gantz long before Lapid, and his staff have offices in the same building, as does Gabi Ashkenazi and his spokesperson. Because an election campaign requires intensive meetings, the staff of the joint list are forced to shuttle between the two offices, which frustrates many of them. Sources in the party headquarters say there are days when Gantz and Lapid don't meet at all, and each one handles matters out of his own office.
The lack of coordination is also seen in how the Blue and White platform was announced. According to sources in the party headquarters, the rollout of the platform was delayed not only because of disagreements between various officials but also because the various sides do not appreciate each other. The sources are saying that the only thing keeping the joint party together is that Gantz and Lapid are easygoing.
This week saw another sign of the lack of coordination when Gantz informed the haredi parties that he intended to bring them into a government under his leadership if he were to win the election. Met with a lukewarm response, Gantz hinted that after the election he planned to shove Lapid aside.
Recently, Yesh Atid officials have been worried that the merger with Gantz has sidelined Lapid in the public eye, and has effectively made him No. 4 on a list of military generals. They say that this is one of the reasons why Lapid put out a campaign video this week featuring himself only.
Blue and White officials say this situation is only natural since the merger took place a little over a month before the election, which did not leave enough time to close the existing party offices and establish a joint headquarters.
"The relations between the leaders and their teams are great, and we see the results in the field and in the polls. It's time for a change, which will come on April 9," the Blue and White party said.
