Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went on the attack against Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday, following the news that his party Yisrael Beytenu had signed a surplus-vote sharing deal with the Blue and White party.
"Anyone who wants [Blue and White leaders] Yair Lapid and [Benny] Gantz as prime ministers should vote for Lieberman, who has joined up with the Left."
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"He already said he would recommend Gantz for prime minister, that means Gantz and Lapid," Netanyahu noted, seeing as Gantz has agreed to share the role of premier with Lapid should he be appointed prime minister under his Israel Resilience Party's deal with Lapid's Yesh Atid.
"Gantz and Lapid are pretending to play prime minister. Yair Lapid told me he doesn't understand anything about economics, and proved it when he failed as finance minister. Benny Gantz failed in his first business enterprise. [Their fellow Blue and White leader Gabi] Ashkenazi and Gantz, as [IDF] chief of staff and deputy chief of staff were against the establishment of a border fence with Egypt." As for reports of infighting among Blue and White party leadership, Netanyahu said, "There are problems in the cockpit."
The Likud party also blasted the vote-sharing deal.
"The cat is out of the bag. Lieberman signed a surplus deal with Lapid and Gantz, and that is after he openly declared he would support Gantz and Lapid for the premiership. Whoever wants Netanyahu as prime minister must only vote for Likud."
Lieberman, for his part, did not take the criticism quietly.
On Twitter, the Yisrael Beytenu party leader wrote, "The response from Likud made me laugh. Netanyahu made a deal that surrenders to Hamas – I made a surplus deal with Blue and White. I think that's preferable."
Under the Israeli electoral system, parties in the Knesset are awarded seats based on their proportional share of the overall vote. Since each seat is equivalent to a certain number of votes, parties from the same side of the political divide often sign agreements so as to ensure that both of their candidates' lists maximize their potential strength.
Such deals mean that after the total vote is tallied, both parties share the remaining votes they received and then one of them could win an extra seat.
Meanwhile, there has been a mixed reaction to Amir Peretz's interview with Israel Hayom earlier this week, in which the Labor party leader blasted Blue and White, claiming it lacked any ideology and saying it was his assessment that Lapid would cut ties with the list following the election.
While members of Peretz's inner circle were pleased with the messages he relayed in the interview, which received widespread coverage in the media, many in the Labor party have come up with their own conspiracy theories, according to which Peretz gave the interview in an effort to gain favor with Likud, and later join a coalition under Netanyahu. This despite the fact that during the interview, Peretz made it explicitly clear he would not join a Netanyahu government.
Some Labor party members have criticized Peretz for coming after Blue and White in the interview, noting that Labor was not the political force it once was and would, therefore, be better off not butting heads with the largest party in the Center-Left bloc.
Meanwhile, Labor's alliance with the Gesher party continues to draw criticism for continuing to tread water in the polls.
"We are coming in last place out of all the parties in the polls. It is concerning. We're in trouble," a Labor activist admitted to Israel Hayom.
"There is great concern that we won't pass the [3.25%] electoral threshold, which is something that will hurt the entire bloc. Amir Peretz's focus on Likud voters could lead us to collapse. It's a dangerous gamble."
