At the start of the Knesset’s winter session, which began Oct. 15, Zionist Camp Chair Avi Gabbay had two targets: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid. The former is his natural rival as head of the right-wing bloc and the leader of the government Gabbay hopes to replace. The latter is his colleague in the center-left bloc who believes that he is the person most capable of unseating the current prime minister. Of Gabbay's attacks on this two targets, those against Lapid are the more interesting and the more important.

Gabbay used his speech at an Oct. 15 meeting of the Zionist Camp faction to target Lapid for preventing the faction from toppling Netanyahu's government by supporting the proposed conscription law. He accused Lapid of “selling the equal sharing of the burden [of compulsory military service] for a seat in the next government and acting like a bullet-proof vest for Netanyahu’s government.” If Netanyahu were unable to prevent the conscription of ultra-Orthodox youths, the ultra-Orthodox parties in his ruling coalition would desert him, thus triggering new elections that Netanyahu's Likud appears poised to win.

Gabbay’s attacks on Lapid were unjustly buried by the intense atmosphere surrounding the start of the Knesset’s winter session. There were endless interviews and all sorts of populist declarations, as one might expect on the eve of a new election cycle. A situation in which the Zionist Camp chair attacks the head of a “sister party” only serves Netanyahu by making it impossible for the center-left to craft a solid alternative to his right-wing government. That said, Gabbay was forced to do so for the sake of his own political survival.

Gabbay's party is performing terribly in the polls, and people are plotting behind his back to replace him. By attacking Lapid, Gabbay hopes to win back seats that had turned to other parties. As far as he is concerned, going on the attack is the easy way to expand his voter base.