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.

The main problem of the center-left parties is not rooted in their leaders’ lack of willingness or ability to unite under one roof. As recent polls indicate, party unions such as the one between the Likud and Yisrael Beitenu barely impact the balance of power between the two blocs.

In my view, herein lies the biggest failure of the center-left bloc: the tendency to look for lost coins under the familiar streetlights in the center, after everyone else has already looked there. In order to find the tie-breaker, the bloc must seek out forgotten electorates that can bring about a real change in the balance of power.