Netanyahu vows no alliance with Zionist Camp

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Sunday that he would not join forces with any left-wing parties, including the Zionist Camp, after the upcoming elections, but pledged to include the right-wing Jewish Home party in his coalition.

In a statement, Netanyahu said, “I won’t form a government with the left-wing parties because of the wide ideological gulf today between the Likud [party] and [Isaac] Bougie [Herzog] and Tzipi [Livni].”

He was responding to remarks by Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett, who had claimed Likud would form a government with the Zionist Camp, the name given to the joint list merging the Labor and Hatnua parties, should Jewish Home fail to win a significant number of seats.

Netanyahu vowed that Jewish Home would be part of a “broad Likud government that I will found.”

He nonetheless exhorted Israelis to vote Likud rather than Jewish Home or any other party, saying that without a resounding victory for his own party, there would be no guarantee he would be able to form a coalition. Should that be the case, “it would appear that a leftist government will emerge.”

“The choice this time is between a large Likud and a left-wing government,” he said.

A Channel 10 poll published Sunday showed the Zionist Camp and Likud neck-and-neck with five weeks to go until the elections, with a projected 23 seats apiece.

Still, 46 percent of those surveyed believe Netanyahu was best suited to serve as prime minister, as opposed to 31% who said Herzog.

The Jewish Home party and the United Arab List, a coalition of three Arab Israeli parties, were tied in third place with 13 seats apiece, the poll found.

Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party and Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu party were also tied in the poll, with both centrist lists expected to garner 10 seats.

Both parties have dubbed themselves as champions of the people and are primarily focused on the living standards of middle-class Israelis.