Right after Israel Resilience head Benny Gantz launched his election campaign, Hatnua suffered a final collapse in the polls. Gantz’ party almost doubled its strength within a day at the expense of the other center-left parties. Inevitably, the headlines referred to the phenomenon as the “Gantz effect.” Its main victims were the Labor Party, which plunged to the single-digit range; Yesh Atid, which lost several precious seats; and Knesset member Tzipi Livni's Hatnua, which was just within arm’s reach of the electoral threshold.

Labor chair Avi Gabbay delivered the first blow when he ended their partnership on camera Jan. 1, splitting the Zionist Camp alliance. Then Gantz stepped in with the death stroke.

Until just a few days ago, Livni was in touch with people close to Gantz about a possible merger, though it remains unclear how serious the talks were. In the end, they also shut the door in her face. Even if she was never told so explicitly, in its efforts to draw voters from the soft right, the Israeli Resilience party was keeping its distance from the centrist banner and the diplomatic solution with which Livni was so closely identified.

Livni called a press conference on the afternoon of Feb. 18. With tears in her eyes, she announced that she was dropping out of the upcoming election. She could have drawn the process out a bit longer — the deadline for submitting party lists is Feb. 21 — but she decided to put a stop to everything, admitting that as things now stand, she lacks the political strength to see her vision, diplomatic negotiations with the Palestinians to advance a two-state solution, fulfilled.