The decision by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to move the elections up to January 2013 left his political rivals with very little time to present voters with a fitting alternative — but they also wasted what little time they had.
As has often been noted on this site and elswhere, leaders of the center-left parties have waged ego-driven battles instead of uniting to form the largest party in the Knesset after the elections, hopefully bigger than the sum of its parts. But even if the sudden talks about joining forces over the weekend of Dec. 4 between Shelly Yachimovich (Labor), Tzipi Livni (Hatenua) and others signaled the formation of a united front to oust Netanyahu, their prospects against the right have not improved, nor has a dramatic change occurred.
