Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a small strategic planning meeting last week in his Jerusalem home on Balfour Street. The Likud Party’s showing in the polls appears poor, and the two mandates that were added after Netanyahu’s congressional speech March 3 have disintegrated. The gap between it and the Zionist Camp party grew to four mandates — to the Likud's detriment.
Throughout his campaign, Netanyahu insisted on focusing the debate on the diplomatic/security agenda, with the goal of dragging Zionist Camp Chairman Isaac Herzog into turf where Netanyahu has the upper hand. Suddenly, however, the prime minister changed his strategy. Netanyahu said it was a big mistake for him to wriggle out of dealing with socio-economic issues in his campaign, leaving them to Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid and Kulanu head Moshe Kahlon.
