Some Likud party leaders claim have been given marching orders to begin preparing for general elections, according to a Makor Rishon report.
The Likud party leaders claim the message came down directly from the Prime Minister’s office and that elections may be called in the coming months.
The Prime Minister’s office, on their part, denies that elections are in the air, and that Netanyahu isn’t even considering the matter and no message was sent.
There his been a lot of talk lately about Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party leaving the coalition, and the Haredi parties replacing them. Netanyahu had also previously threatened to fire Tzipi Livni if she met again with representatives from the Palestinian Unity government, which she did yesterday.
The friction between Lapid and Livni against Netanyahu has only been escalating.
Alternatively, Netanyahu may be using the hint of early elections as a weapon.
Recent polls indicate that Livni’s HaTnua party will disappear completely or be subsumed by Labor, while Lapid’s Yesh Atid party will noticeably shrink. The threat of irrelevance may be enough reason to get the two of them back in line and stop disrupting the coalition.