When Knesset member Amir Peretz returned to head the Labor Party July 2, he imagined that he would be able to increase his party’s strength at a rate of one seat per week up until the election. In that way, he would reach the finish line with 15 seats. One week ago, he surprised the left when he announced a merger with Gesher, a party headed by Orly Levy-Abekasis that positions itself on the social right. Having already announced that he plans to win votes from the soft right, Peretz slammed the door in the faces of former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Meretz chairman Nitzan Horowitz.

Yesterday morning, it was his turn to be surprised. Barak, Horowitz and former Labor member Stav Shaffir flooded the social networks with a selfie of them standing together, announcing that they were joining forces in a new list called the Democratic Camp.

Later that evening, after that riveting day, Peretz sat in the Channel 12 News studio with a chilling poll splashed on the screens. It predicted that his Labor-Gesher coalition would only win five seats — one less than Labor won in April’s election. In contrast, the new list founded that morning had skyrocketed to 10 seats.

Barak had faced a crisis over the last few days and was barely treading water in the polls, not least because of his ties with disgraced billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who is currently embroiled in a sex trafficking scandal. He therefore agreed to the take the number-10 slot in the new list. By putting his ego aside, he spared himself further humiliation. But there was also an advantage to his decision to join forces with Meretz and Shaffir: It took the spotlight off him so he could continue to pummel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while celebrating Peretz' crash. After all, just three days earlier, Peretz called on him to drop out of the election so as not to waste votes on the left.