The merged Labor party, AKA the “Zionist Camp” headed by Yitzchak Herzog and Tzipi Livni, has drafted former military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin to fill its vacuum for a future Defense Minister if it forms the next government.

Israel Radio (Voice of Israel) was quick to promote Yadlin Tuesday morning with soft-glove questions that allowed him to show off his knowledge.

He divulged the astounding opinion that anyone who wants to kill Israelis should be killed first, apparently a revolutionary concept for Israel Radio, which has a blatant leftist agenda even though it is supposed to be non-political.

The Herzog-Livni party, billed as the “Zionist Camp,” and the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) party headed by Naftali Bennett would be the two largest parties in Israel if university and college students were voting, according to a poll published by Globes.

The Likud party came in a distant third place, winning only 16 of 120 Knesset seats in a poll of nearly 2,600 students.

The Herzog-Livni combo won 30 seats, and Bennett’s party was only four seats behind.

Bennett topped the list on the question of trust, while Herzog was favored when it comes to social issues, housing and future employment, which are of the utmost concern to students.

Herzog and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu were even-Stephen in the poll that asked who is best suited to be Prime Minister.

Political leaders should pay serious attention to the results because they show that those who soon will be in the forefront of society are tired of slogans, talk and lack of change in a social and political system that is overweight, tired and self-fulfilling.

The lists of candidates of the Jewish Home party and the in the merged Labor-Livni party, even if it is called the “Zionist Camp,” are clearly left-wing and right-wing.

The Likud, under Netanyahu, has tried so hard to be so centrist that it has no clear direction.

Israel’s establishment launched the election campaign by trying to convince the public that Labor-Livni is not leftwing but is a centrist party.

The Labor party primaries killed that hoax with the election of bona fide leftists, including one who wants to divide Jerusalem, to spots that guarantee them a seat in the next Knesset.

Similar, voters in the Jewish Home party made it look like a resurrection of the old National Religious Party, except for the spectacular victory of secularist Ayelet Shaked.

Bennett can make the list a bit more secular but even stronger as a right-wing faction if he exercises his option of choosing a candidate for a top spot and nominates Dani Dayan, a spokesman for Judea and Samaria but not religious.

The merged party that brought together Labor and Tzipi Livni under the banner of the “Zionist Camp” has talked with Arab Knesset Member Ahmed Tibi about a possible coalition government.

The fact that Labor party chairman Yitzchak Herzog would even agree to talk with an anti-Zionist Arab MKs such as Tibi is only another page in Herzog-Livni’s new book to prove once again that “you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”

It is not clear whether Herzog approached Arab political leaders or vice-versa, but both sides agree there were talks on the possibility of Arab parties breaking the taboo against joining a Jewish-dominated coalition in the Knesset.

Channel 10 reported that it was Herzog who took the initiative, and he confirmed there were contacts but insisted that it was MK Tibi who approached him.

Remember, Herzog and Livni merged their two parties under the clever slogan of the “Zionist Camp,” just in case anything thinks that expelling hundreds of thousands of Jews from Judea and Samira is not Zionistic.

The theory is that it is better for Jews to be a majority in “Auschwitz Borders,” as termed by former Labor party official and Ambassador to the United Nations Abba Eban, than to be “surrounded by Arabs.” By the way, this is exactly the situation of the Jews in Netanya and Hadera, except that they are not surrounded by Arabs on all sides because they have the Mediterranean Sea to protect them on the west.

And who is Ahmed Tibi, with whom Herzog talked about a future coalition with the “Zionist Camp”?

He was elected to the Knesset in 1999 after serving as an adviser to Yasser Arafat. As a Knesset Member, he supported terror under the euphemism of the “intifada.”

Tibi opposes Israel being a Jewish state, which he calls “racist.”

He backs abolishing the Law of Return that allows Jews all over the world to move to Israel as citizens, but he backs the so-called Arab “right of return” for third, fourth fifth and six-generation Arabs living in foreign countries but classified as “refugees” by the United Nations because their great-great-great–great grandparents lived in Israel once upon a time.

Tibi wants to ban the HaTikvah national anthem and the blue and white Jewish flag bearing the Star of David.

In a radio interview last July where he refused to use the word ‘terrorists’ regarding the murderers of three yeshiva youth,  Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Sha’ar and Eyal Yifrah. Tibi blamed “the government of Israel, Naftali Bennett and the rabbis who incited to murder Palestinians” for the revenge killing of Mohammed Abu Khder.

Herzog can breathe a sigh of relief that Tibi rejected the idea of joining a Siamese twin coalition headed by Herzog and Livni.

However, if the “Zionist Camp” forms the next coalition, Tibi said it might get the support of Arab MKs in critical votes in exchange for more funds for the Arab sector.

Four pre-election polls published Thursday night and Friday morning show varying results, but two of them reveal that the popularity of Labor-Livni has grown by a solitary seat in the Knesset. Nevertheless, Israel’s establishment media are reporting the trivial news as if there is a rush of support for the left.

Polls are not  meaningless, but when a party registers one seat more or one less from week to week, it is virtually insignificant, numerically as well as statistically when taking into account the margin of error in small samples.

That has not stopped Israel Radio, known by the misnomer in English as the Voice of Israel, from promoting the results of this week’s poll as a victory for the “Zionist camp,” a label now claimed by everyone except for Neturei Karta.

Similarly,  three television polls show that the lead party is the “Zionist camp,” whose list of candidates likely to be elected includes those who want to turn over all of Judea and Samaria as well as half of Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority, which has said that no Jew will be allowed to live there.

The same poll trumpeted by Israel radio also shows that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has a 4 percentage lead over Labor party leaders Yitzchak Herzog and Tzipi Livni when voters are faced with the question of who should be Prime Minister. However, Rafi Smith, who carried out the poll, said this is insignificant because of the margin of error, which apparently does not apply to results in favor of the left.

But that was the secondary headline.

The big news, according to Israel Radio, is that Herzog-Livni is now leading the Likud party by two seats instead of one.

The gap is 2, 4 and 1 in three polls on television channels 2, 10 and 1.

More significant is that Herzog-Livni still have no chance to form a coalition government without an ungodly collection of Meretz and Yisrael Beiteinu or Yisrael Beiteinu and Haredi parties.

After adding up all the numbers, the picture has not changed from last week or even last month: There are two camps: the anti-Netanyahu parties of Labor-Livni, Meretz and Yesh Atid, headed by Yair Lapid; and the pro-Netanyahu camp of the Likud and the Jewish Home, which according to all polls is holding stable with 16-17 mandates.

The most significant changes in the numbers relate to Yisrael Beiteinu, which has been in a clear trend of a decline in the past month. The four polls give the party 5, 6 and 7 seats, far less than when the current Knesset was dissolved.

After taking into account small differences in poll results for the other parties, Kulanu, headed by Moshe Kahlon, Yesh Atid, Meretz and Shas are not moving up or down significantly.

Eli Yishai, who split from Shas and formed his own party, still is on the borderline of being shut out of the Knesset.

There are other very significant indications: If Labor-Livni picks up any more seats, it will be at the expense of Meretz or Yesh Atid, and vice-versa. If Kulanu attracts more voters, they likely will move over from Yesh Atid, Yisrael Beiteinu and possibly the Likud.

There still are two months left before voters go to the polls, and Israel Radio and most of the television channels will try to convince voters that Herzog and Livni have the best chance to win.

If the combined party comes out on top, President Reuven Rivlin will have little choice but to give it the first crack at forming a government, which brings back to mind the elections five years ago.

The results from the Labor party (or whatever they are calling themselves today, depending on their audience) primary results are in, and the following is their initial list.

Three of the top 4 spots are filled by women.

Tzipi Livni gets to select of few candidates from her former Hatnua party for reserved positions on the Labor list, though since almost all of her fellow Hatnua party members have quit she may have to look a little further afield. Presumably one of her spots will go to Amir Peretz, who used to be in the Labor party.

As Herzog and Livni were not actually running, Shelly Yechimovich was voted the most popular person in the party.

1) Yitzchak Herzog
2) Tzipi Livni
3) Shelly Yechimovich
4) Stav Shapir
5) Itzik Shmuli
6) Amar Bar-Lev
7) Hilik Bar
8) Reverved for Hatnua (Amir Peretz)
9) Merav Michaeli
10) Eitan Cabel
11) Reserved
12) Arel Margalit
13) Miki Rozenthal
14) Revital Swed
15) Dani Atar
16) Reserved for Hatnua (Manuel Trajtenberb)
17) Zohir Bahalul
18) Eitan Broshi
19) Michal Biran
20) Nachman Shai
21) Reserved for Hatnua
22) Ayelet Nachmias Varbin
23) Yossi Yona
24) Reserved for Hatnua
25) Reserved for Hatnua

In the latest poll, taken by Maariv-Walla, we have the following results:

Likud (Netanyahu): 25

Labor (Herzog-Livni): 24

Bayit Yehudi (Bennett): 15

Arab List: 11

Kulanu (Kachlon): 10

Yesh Atid (Lapid): 9

UTJ (Litzman-Gafni): 8

Shas (Deri): 6

Meretz (Gal-on): 6

Yisrael Beiteinu (Liberman): 6 In the latest poll the Likud is now back on top. Due to their unification, in response to the raised electoral threshold, the united Arab list is likely to become the 4th largest party in the Knesset, though it still remains one of the smaller parties.

Eli Yishai just barely keeps on missing the electoral threshold.

Deri is expected to announce next week that his permanent exit from politics or as head of the Shas party is over, and he’s retaking the reins of the Shas party.

Unless one of the two larger parties can break away and get higher numbers, we still see this ongoing deadlock situation, where everyone is reliant on the smaller parties to form a coalition, is its possible to form a coalition at all.

If Labor and Likud form a national unity government, that will actually provide them a wide range of partners, of course, the government will be even worse than the last one.

With neither Kachlon, Shas, UTJ or Yisrael Beiteinu swearing allegiance to a right-wing coalition, everything is up for grabs.

It appears, in fact, that Labor would have an easier time to form a coalition than Likud with these numbers.

In a second question asked:  between Benjamin Netanyahu and Yitzchak Herzog, 50% believe that Netanyahu is better suited to be Prime Minister, while 25% believe Herzog is better suited for the task.

There’s something appropriate that the upcoming Israeli elections are being held so soon after the Purim holiday.

I would venture to say it’s the only explanation for the mishaps, mistakes, and clown-like behavior.

Let’s start with Tzipi Livni (Hatnua).

The polls showed that Livni was unlikely to pass the electoral threshold, yet both Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Yitzchak Herzog (Labor) courted and chased after Livni as if she was the last girl on Earth.

Like King Achashverosh of Shushan, Herzog offered Livni half his kingdom, though unlike Achahverosh, Herzog doesn’t actually have a kingdom to offer, but then again, Livni doesn’t have anything to offer in return either.

And when these two sycophants agreed to merge with one another (to the dismay of most of the MKs in the Labor party), Livni and Herzog’s “brilliant” campaign strategy to gain votes was to change the merged party’s name into “The Zionist Camp”, a name selected solely as an attempt to outwit the campaign slogans of their competitors and the Right – and not because it has much connection to reality.

(But that’s typical of the Left, hijacking normal words and phrases, corrupting them so badly they can no longer be used in their proper context – just look how they’ve corrupted the term “Freedom of Speech” — now it means shutting down newspapers.)

The two can only hope they don’t confuse and turn off their Left-wing voters who don’t want to vote for the Zionist camp.

And then we have Aryeh Deri. Like on Purim, Deri is drunk on power.

Deri is so afraid of Eli Yishai, as Yishai is considered the better, more honest, the more popular, and the more capable politician, that Deri did everything to push Yishai down and out – even though polls showed that Shas with Yishai at its head would win 2 seats more than Shas with Deri in charge.

As a result, Shas is likely to crash, and whatever new party Yishai forms will do well – which is good, because we know where Yishai stands and what he’s capable of, and his record doesn’t include jail time.

And then we have our friends in Bayit Yehudi – both sides standing up so hard for their principles that they’re just going to split the party that has the potential to become the second largest in the Knesset.

It’s right out of a Purim Shpiel, or maybe just a Greek tragedy.

And finally, there’s Avigdor Liberman.

Yes, Avigdor. The man who claims he is the most responsible adult in the room.

The man, who after the 2009 election, disappeared overseas for days, right in the middle of the February coalition negotiations, forgetting his cell phone at home, and leaving the country stuck in neutral, as he played power games and kingmaker with Netanyahu and Livni.

And yes, here is Mr. Responsible Adult, once again, playing the same childish games.

Once again Liberman won’t say if he will support the Right or Left. In fact he came out yesterday and explicitly said he might very well support Livni and Herzog for Prime Minister.

It sounded earily similar to what Liberman told Radio Kol Yisrael in 2009 (via A7), before disappearing:

“Our position is already clear and I know exactly what I am going to tell President Shimon Peres. In order to know whom we are going to recommend, we will wait six more days. I think it is too early and there is no point saying whom we support. I have met with both Livni and Netanyahu and with additional people in the political system but my position is already clear and solid. When we go to the President we will say very clear things.”