Opposition leaders traded barbs Monday after Opposition Leader Yair Lapid accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to engineer “satellite parties” to help him remain in power.

Lapid’s accusation was also seen as a swipe at Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz’s reported efforts to form a joint electoral slate with former fire commissioner Dedi Simhi and Yoaz Hendel’s Reservists party.

The exchange came two days after Netanyahu said he hoped to establish a broad national government after the next election, echoing rhetoric increasingly used by Gantz and his prospective political allies.

Speaking ahead of his Yesh Atid party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset, Lapid argued that Netanyahu’s outreach and attempts to engineer “satellite parties” were a sign he believes he is headed for defeat in the elections, set to be held by late October.

While Likud is projected to remain the largest party in the Knesset, recent polls show it falling from its current 32 seats to roughly 22-24, neck-and-neck with the opposition bloc’s Gadi Eisenkot, whose newly formed Yashar party has been rising in the polls consistently, and last week overtook Likud for the first time in a Zman Yisrael poll.

Neither Netanyahu’s bloc nor the opposition bloc would be able to form a government, however, due to the rest of the votes going to Arab parties.

“It’s completely clear that Netanyahu is trying to build satellite parties for himself, using votes from our camp, so he can form a government. He has no other way to win. Even so, he won’t succeed,” said Lapid, calling the efforts “desperate.”

Although Lapid did........

© The Times of Israel