Yossi Verter

Despite the strategist's predictions, party members see the continuing slide in the polls and admit the attack on Naftali Bennet backfired; still, at the Likud-Beiteinu campaign launch, they all gave the PM a standing ovation.

PM responds to rumors that Hatnuah leader would get senior foreign affairs role in exchange for joining his coalition.

Voters are punishing Prime Minister Netanyahu for attacking rival who said that if he were in the army, he'd refuse an order to evacuate settlers.

The Habayit-Hayehudi leader seemed blessed with a rare political magic touch. That is, until the unfortunate television interview in which he said he would disobey IDF orders if required to evacuate a Jewish settlement.

Condemnation of construction in disputed areas of Jerusalem is 'excellent - it is sheer profit for us,' a senior Likud source says.

Buoyed by the polls, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Lieberman spend the week pouring hot Hanukkah oil over anyone who gets in their way, knowing that their biggest battles await after next month's election.

The Avigdor Lieberman file wandered along all those years, changing form. It got stronger or weaker, bloated up or lost weight (the case, that is ) between slats and among drawers.

The center-left bloc is a fragmented mess, while the right wing is solidifying its lead, as 81 percent of Israelis believe Netanyahu will be the next prime minister.

Israel has had its turbulent elections in the past, but it is doubtful if any ever plumbed the depths of moral and ideological bankruptcy as the present campaign for the 19th Knesset.

Time after time over the last few years, the sources said, Lieberman warned his deputy to zip his lip, but the latter never learned.

The body of Lieberman's list is due to merge with the Likud list on Wednesday, according to the zipper system: In the first ten places, apart from Lieberman, only three places for those hailing from the former Soviet Union.

Minutes after the primary vote ended, Labor politicians resorted to their favorite practice: undermining the party leader.

Even by Israeli standards it's been a dizzying week. As Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak decided against running in the upcoming election, Haim Katz fought a losing battle in the Likud primary.

Latest Haaretz-Dialog survey predicts Tzipi Livni's new party, Hatnuah, will garner only seven Knesset seats.

Livni has chosen to call her new party Hatnuah, The Movement, not in the sense of a Mizrahi movement or a youth movement, but more in the sense of progressing, constant motion - perpetuum mobile.

The systemic storm that overtook the Likud at the end of two days of foul-up filled primaries has such extreme implications that pundits suggest Netanyahu would need the good graces of FM Lieberman to 'moderate' the final slate a bit.

After an eventful political career that culminated in five years as defense minister, he realized it could only go downhill from here. For now.

The ruling party embarrassed itself when its computers crashed on voting day. It holds a primary only once every few years. It has all the time in the world to get the system ready and to test it.

It takes great courage to stand in front of your voters when they are mad at you and don't understand you. They seemed to have thought Netanyahu was what he said he was, but they will most likely calm down by January 22.

Without serious challengers, Netanyahu, Barak and Lieberman can afford to go against the incitement of the rightist community and some television channels.

At the same time, however, only 30 percent of the public supports a ground attack in Gaza.

To oppose the military operation in the Gaza Strip would be political suicide for Shelly Yacimovich and Yair Lapid - they have jumped on the Barak-Netanyahu bandwagon.

The prime minister has boasted never having declared a war in the total of seven years he has led the country, despite being a belligerent talker. So why now?

The mistaken advice from political whiz Arthur Finkelstein, the painful glitch called Naftali Bennett and the re-election of Barack Obama – the astonishment that seized Netanyahu and his advisers this week was absolute as it was authentic.

Former Kadima chairwoman believes the only way to overturn the current government is to unify the center-left bloc - and that only Peres can achieve that; Peres associates: 'Peres will not run. Period.'