Yair Lapid speaking at a Yesh Atid event
Yair Lapid speaking at a Yesh Atid eventAvshalom Sassoni/Flash90

While Netanyahu is publicly calling for right-wing parties Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit to unite (in a technical alliance) in advance of elections this November, on the other side of the political spectrum, a similar process is occurring.

According to a report on Kan Bet on Thursday morning, senior figures in the Yesh Atid party have revealed that one of their party's strategies will be to seek to "steal" votes from the left-wing Labor and Meretz parties, in the hope that this will prompt them to form an alliance.

The report notes that whereas in the last few elections Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid was particular not to court voters who would otherwise have voted either for Labor or Meretz, this time around he has changed his approach. The danger is the same one -- the two parties are, as they were then, hovering just above the electoral threshold in polls. However, instead of ensuring that they pass the four-seat threshold separately, Lapid wants them to join up and together pass the threshold comfortably.

Two recent polls (one conducted for Channel 12 News, the other for Kan News) give Meretz either six or four seats, and Labor five. Another poll, conducted for Channel 13 News, gives Labor five seats and Meretz four.

Polls have consistently placed Yesh Atid in second place, followed by the National Unity list. After running together with the list's head, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, in several elections, Lapid now wants to ensure that Gantz is so far behind his own party that there is no question of the Defense Minister himself forming a coalition with the help of right-wing or haredi parties. Thus Yesh Atid's election campaign will focus not only on appealing to Labor or Meretz voters, but also on attracting center-left voters who might be tempted to gravitate to the new party formed by Gantz and erstwhile New Hope leader Gideon Sa'ar.