Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni
Yair Lapid and Tzipi LivniYonatan Sindel/Flash90

MK Tzipi Livni called on Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid for a pledge not to recommend Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to form the coalition for the 20th Knesset. 

Instead, she said Thursday, Lapid should vow to recommend Yitzhak Herzog - fellow Chairman of her party Labor-Hatnua. 

"We're a month before elections - it's either us or him [Netanyahu]," Livni demanded of Lapid during a conversation with Channel Two News.

"I expect you to inform the public that you are committed to recommending us for prime minister, in order to stop Netanyahu." 

However, Lapid and his party have evidently chosen not to reply to the call.

Livni's call comes the same week Likud has taken a clear lead in the polls, making Netanyahu the likely candidate to form the new government after elections on March 17. 

An average of election surveys this week finds Likud at the top with 25 mandates. Labor-Hatnua lags behind with 23. 

Meanwhile, Kulanu Chairman Moshe Kahlon said Thursday he would join any government that allows him to fight the banks and the high cost of living in Israel. 

In an interview with Army Radio, Kahlon stated, "I'll sit in any government, obviously with normal and reasonable guidelines, though." 

"For the sake of [the country] I will sit with Buji [Herzog], I will sit with Bibi [Netanyahu]," Kahlon stressed. 

"The public has been tossed Left and Right [on security]; this is a deliberate policy. No one wants to solve the social problems," Kahlon argued. 

The former Communications Minister added that he believes Kulanu will be able to ask for the finance portfolio, with him then becoming Finance Minister. 

"I think we will receive enough mandates to demand the finance portfolio," the Kulanu Chairman said. 

Kahlon also noted that "I will not join a government unless I receive management control over the Israel Lands Authority."

Yesh Atid has so far chosen not to respond to Livni's demand.