One would think the prospect of a political deadlock in the wake of the March 23 elections would be enough for those claiming to represent the public to strive to work together so as to foster political stability. This, however, is not the case.
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If recent polls are accurate, the March 23 elections – Israel's fourth in two years – may not yield a decisive result and, in fact, could bring about a prolonged political deadlock and multiple election campaigns going forward.
One would think that this would be enough for the leaders of the political parties vying in the elections to strive toward forming as stable a government as possible – but that is not the case.
Israel's political leaders are currently busy setting rigid lines and disqualifying potential coalition partners instead of comping up with a compromise that could best serve the public in a time when Israel is battling health, social and economic crises.
Likud: The ruling party announced that it will not, under any circumstances, share the coalition table with the Joint Arab List, not with Ra'am.
The latter broke from the Joint Arab List – an alliance now comprising Balad, Ta'al and Hadash parties – two weeks ago over Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas' apparent rapprochement with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Ra'am is not expected to cross the four-seat electoral threshold. Likud has said that it will not join forces with the Arab faction "over its opposition to peace deals that bring Jews and Arabs closer together.
Appealing to Arab voters, Netanyahu recently said the Likud "has nothing against Arabs - we are against Arab parties that deny Zionism and do not recognize the State of Israel.
"I produced four peace agreements and now we see Jews and Arabs embracing in Dubai. There's no reason why that can't happen here. Why vote for extremist parties that don't work for you? Vote for me. Vote for us."
Yesh Atid: Current Opposition Leader Yair Lapid has made it clear that he will not cooperate with parties that do not support Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.
This inherently excludes Balad, and by extension the Joint Arab List – although Lapid has not said as much explicitly; as well as far-right Otzma Yehudit party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir. As the latter has joined forces with the Religious Zionist Party, it would make it hard for Lapid to join a coalition that includes it, as well.
Yesh Atid has also ruled out joining a coalition led by an individual under indictment, meaning the Likud, as Netanyahu is facing charges of accepting bribes, fraud and breach of trust.
New Hope: While Gideon Sa'ar formed a right-wing party he has opted to push a moderate agenda. As such, he has state he will not join a coalition that includes Ben-Gvir, who "has a radical agenda. I don't see him as someone who can be part of the coalition of my government."
Nevertheless, Sa'ar has deemed Religious Zionist Party leader Betzalel Smotrich "a legitimate partner."
New Hope's leader – a former Likud minister – announced that he will not join a Netanyahu-led government: "The continuation of Netanyahu's rule goes against the country's best interests and that's something on which I will not compromise."
Officials with New Hope said that the party is also unwilling to cooperate with the Joint Arab List. A senior party official stressed that "we have no issue with Arab MKs but we do take issue with [political] positions that support terrorism and negate Israel as a Jewish and democratic state."
Yamina: The national-religious party leader Naftali Bennett has emerged as a kingmaker in the coming elections. Yamina could join either political bloc and holds the power to determine the nature of the next government.
At the strategic level, Bennett has been careful not to align with any of the blocs, nor has he declared who he will or will not share the coalition table. This gives him substantial leverage and could potentially even see him installed in the Prime Minister's Office.
Yamina is pushing a right-wing platform but its campaign focuses on the coronavirus crisis and the economic crunch – two issues that top the public agenda.
Being kingmaker is not without its drawbacks, as Bennett is lambasted by Lapid and Sa'ar on the one hand and Netanyahu on the other hand. Still, he can use these attacks for his advantage, telling voters that other party leaders are busy politicking while he is trying to help the public fight and recover from the inflictions of the past year.
Labor: Party leader Merav Michaeli is trying to rehabilitate the party on multiple levels. Prior to her election as chairperson last month, Labor was projected to fall below the electoral threshold, meaning that for the first time since it was founded, in the mid-1970s, Labor would have been excluded from parliament.
With Michaeli at the helm, however, Labor is projected to win at least six Knesset seats, and she has been sparing no effort to reaffirm the party's image as one that does not breach its campaign promises.
She has stated multiple times that Labor will not join a Netanyahu-led government. Michaeli is also reluctant to share the government table with Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, given that joined Netanyahu to form a national unity government in the wake of the Sept. 2020 elections despite an explicit campaign promise to the contrary.
Labor is also highly unlikely to join a collation that includes the Religious Zionist Party or Yisrael Beytenu over the stark differences in their respective platforms.
United Torah Judaism: One of the social side effects of the coronavirus pandemic was secular Israelis' growing antimony toward the ultra-Orthodox sector. COVID-19 hit Haredi particularly hard mostly over its members' own refusal to adhere to the Health Ministry's guidelines.
The government's inability to enforce lockdown on the Haredi sector infuriated Israelis and gave way to a growing call to exclude them from the government.
Ashkenazi Haredi party United Torah Judaism has been ambivalent about joining a government that includes parties that have expressed clear anti-Haredi positions.
Former United Torah Judaism leader Yakov Litzman had declared that the party will never partner with the likes of Yesh Atid, but newly appointed leader Moshe Gafni has not made such an adamant stance.
Shas: The only party that has yet to come up with a political "blacklist" is the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party Shas, whose campaign is focused on recovering from the coronavirus and Jewish tradition.
Over the past several years, party leader Aryeh Deri has positioned himself as the "mediator" – negotiating various political deal aims at resolving political differences rattling the coalition.
He has already stated that following the elections, he will work to see Sa'ar and Bennett return to the fold of the right-wing bloc.
Yisrael Beytenu: Party leader Avigdor Lieberman's platform has always had a hawkish anti-Haredi policy and he has declared numerous times that he will not join a coalition that includes Shas and UTJ. Over the past three election campaigns, Yisrael Beytenu has also stated it will not join a Netanyahu-led coalition.
Ahead of next month's elections, Lieberman reiterated these promises, adding to his list Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, citing their radical political agenda.
Yisrael Beytenu has signed a voter-sharing deal with Yesh Atid, which is the only major party that is a potential partner.
Blue and White: The party is teetering on the brink of the electoral threshold, as joining Netanyahu's government after the September in what many of its voters have deemed a gross violation of its primary campaign promise has significantly damaged its base.
This time, Blue and White leader Benny Gantz has been careful not to commit to joining or shunning any bloc, instead of focusing his attention on slamming individual Likud MKs, including Netanyahu, who they accuse of manipulating the public.
The Religious Zionist Party: Smotrich was not expected to cross the electoral threshold, and eventually joined forces with far-right Otzma Yehudit party, which itself joined radical Haredi faction Noam, a mere two days before the deadline set by the Central Election Committee for the presentation of the parties' final slates.
The alliance was one Netanyahu had pushed for, despite the reservations expressed by many in Likud and in the Right about having Ben-Gvir, who subscribes to the extremist Kahanist doctrine, not only in the Knesset but potentially in a position for a ministerial role.
Netanyahu has dismissed the latter option, and Smotrich and Ben-Gvir themselves have stated that their alliance is "technical" and that once elected they will operate as separate factions in parliament.
Smotrich's electoral chances were much better when he was part of Yamina, and RZP insiders said that his split form the national-religious party over Bennett's refusal to commit that he would not join Lapid or the Center-Left bloc to form a government that would unseat Netanyahu.
Meretz: Recent polls have not been kind to the leftist party. While most polls project it could win 5 mandates, Labor's recent revival has bitten into Meretz's electoral base, and the party is now expected to barely scarp by the electoral threshold. Two polls this week found that come March 23, Meretz could find itself out of the 24th Knesset.
Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz has stated that he will not join a Netanyahu-led coalition or one that includes extremists the likes of Ben-Gvir. Still, he has said that Meretz "will not dismiss the notion of joining other parties. It depends on the principles of the coalition," he said.
The Joint Arab List: The alliance comprising Balad, Ta'al and Hadash has lost some ground following Ra'am's departure, but it is still expected to wing at least eight mandates.
Joint Arab List leader Ayman Odeh said he hopes that the faction's campaign will eventually see it win a double double-digit number of seats.
Yehuda Shlezinger, Danielle Roth-Avneri, Yair Altman, Efrat Forsher, Dan Lavie, and Daniel Siryoti contributed to this report.
