Likud members accused of attempting to split up Yesh Atid

The Yesh Atid party accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday of attempting to split apart the centrist party in a last-ditch effort to salvage the ruling coalition and avoid elections.

The allegations were swiftly denied by the prime minister, but sources in Likud conceded that such an attempt had been made, according to a report in the Ynet news outlet.

Likud officials have been trying since Wednesday to convince some members of Yesh Atid to break away from Lapid and form a new party, which would then join the coalition with the two ultra-Orthodox parties, Ynet reported.

“If Yesh Atid wants to survive, they need to get up and split now and prevent elections,” a senior Likud member said, according to Ynet. “There have been a few conversations, but as of now, and primarily due to Yesh Atid MKs’ lack of political understanding, it seems the matter is not coming to fruition.”

The charge came a day after the Knesset voted to dissolve itself and party leaders set new elections for March 17, following the collapse of the coalition.

The Ynet report maintained that another female member of the coalition turned to a senior Yesh Atid MK and asked him to lead the split in the party, but the unnamed MK refused.

Channel 2 named former education minister Shai Piron as one of the various Yesh Atid MKs approached with the offer.

A statement from the Yesh Atid party charged that Netanyahu was behind the “hysterical and shameful” move, though there was no official indication that the Likud members had been operating on Netanyahu’s instructions.

“This is another hysterical and shameful attempt by the old politics to avoid what Netanyahu has become scared of – elections. The prime minister is panicking. He knows he is going to lose his seat at the next elections and is doing everything he can to avoid it. Yesh Atid will continue to work in its entirety and together, for the Israeli public,” it said.

The prime minister promptly rejected the accusation.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not working to split Yesh Atid,” a statement from his office said. “This is a lame political spin that reflects the panic that gripped the failed finance minister, Lapid.”

Without Yesh Atid, the current coalition has 49 of its required 61 seats for a Knesset majority.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu went on the offensive, alleging that he was forced to end the coalition because Lapid and justice minister Tzipi Livni, both of whom he fired, had attempted a “putsch.”

Lapid responded Wednesday, saying Netanyahu had “whined” to the Israeli public “that people tried to organize a ‘putsch’ against you, something which never happened… That’s not even disconnected, that’s living in a fantasy world. I tried to overthrow you? Do you hear yourself? Who sold you that absurdity? And what caused you listen to it?”

Rather than he and Livni trying to build an alternative coalition with the ultra-Orthodox parties, it was Netanyahu, Lapid said, who had “cut a deal with the ultra-Orthodox: You promised to cancel the equality of national burden (i.e, the ultra-Orthodix draft law), to increase the budget for yeshivas, to cancel the study of core subjects in their schools.”

Sources in ultra-Orthodox factions have told Israeli media they were approached about forming an alternative coalition, but have refused to say who approached them.

Lazar Berman contributed to this report.