At the end of three weeks of focused battle for Avigdor Liberman's Russian voters, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has failed. Not only has the chairman of Yisrael Beiteinu retained his traditional voters in the Russian sector, but he has continued to grow in polls, taking in mandates from the right and left, from the Blue and White Party and Kulanu. Netanyahu has still not managed to crack Liberman, who has reinvented himself as a champion against religious coercion and has attracted large audiences. 

A poll published July 16 on Channel 12 predicts that Liberman will win 10 mandates — twice his strength in April’s election. The Likud, which has incorporated Kulanu, would win only 31 seats, and the right-wing and ultra-Orthodox bloc without Liberman would win only 55, meaning that Netanyahu won’t be able to form a government. According to the poll, Blue and White, with 30 mandates, won’t be able to form one among the left either. 

Since he prevented a government of the right and the ultra-Orthodox, leading to a new election, Liberman has become the hope of the center-left bloc and Netanyahu’s biggest problem. In recent campaigns the center-left parties failed to attract mandates from the soft right — the Likud. The right’s electorate remained stable. But here, Liberman has upended the game. In contrast to the April election, now he does not commit to recommending Netanyahu to form a government, even though most of his mandates are identified with the right. Moreover, he doesn’t reject the possibility that he would recommend the chairman of Blue and White, Benny Gantz, to form the government. For the first time in years, some mandates from the right could move to the other bloc. This is the biggest drama right now in the election campaign. 

Netanyahu's internal polls are similar to those on television and thus he has increased his attacks on Liberman. On July 15, Netanyahu met with Likud ministers and Knesset members for a campaign meeting that was meant to tighten the ranks and sharpen messages. The conversation was mostly about Liberman. Netanyahu presented a goal of 61 mandates, a majority coalition, for the right-ultra-Orthodox bloc without Liberman.