It sounds funny now. However, just a few weeks ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, driven by deep concerns over a likely alliance between the centrist and left-wing parties, was still undecided about whether he should call for an early election. The scenario of the opposition bloc forming a unified list, larger than the Likud, that may win the upcoming election and consequently the mandate to set up the next government has become a real nightmare for Netanyahu.

Having once experienced a most painful defeat — when he lost the premiership to Ehud Barak in 1999 after the center-left parties joined forces against him at the very last minute and beat him at the ballot box by a wide margin — his fears of a replay of such a scenario featuring a unified center-left coalition is quite understandable.

In fact, Netanyahu has lost many nights’ sleep over the possibility that Tzipi Livni, Shaul Mofaz, Shelly Yachimovich and Yair Lapid, as well as other as yet nonaligned figures, like former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, will run on a joint ticket.

Netanyahu finally chose to announce the early election — but this, only after coming to an agreement with Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Liberman on a Likud-Yisrael Beitenu merger. Netanyahu already held a first work meeting in New York with the leader of Yisrael Beitenu and American PR advisor Arthur Finkelstein, who laid out for the two their election campaign strategy. Thus, for fear of a center-left unification, the alliance of the Likud-Beitenu has come to life. Sounds funny, doesn’t it?