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How Israel’s center-left bloc missed another opportunity

Israel's public broadcasting crisis within the government coalition presented the opposition with a golden opportunity to attack the government — an opportunity that the fragmented center-left bloc did not seize.
Isaac Herzog leader of Zionist Union delivers a statement at the party headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/Baz Ratner - RTSEWFL
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon have been bickering for several days now over the scheduled launch of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (destined to replace the Israeli Broadcasting Authority). Netanyahu has announced that he wants to cancel the launch of the corporation.

This serious coalition crisis is sending shockwaves across the Israeli political system. It could have been the center-left's greatest hour, but the leaders of that bloc — Isaac Herzog of the Zionist Camp and Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid — failed yet again in presenting a clear and sensible alternative to Netanyahu's current government and the ideology of the right. When faced with the heated clash between the prime minister and the finance minister, Herzog and Lapid decided to act separately, instead of consolidating forces.

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