Beyond the fact that Israel is now heading to an unprecedented third election in less than a year, local politics are being rapidly reshaped by shifting alliances and new phenomena that could drastically redraw party lines.

Gideon Sa’ar, who is now challenging Benjamin Netanyahu for the leadership of the ruling Likud, is seen as representing one such phenomenon, namely the influx of new members into a party with the aim of radically altering its ideological platform. Some of the Likud MKs backing Sa’ar, like Sharren Haskel, are accused of being”new Likudniks” – a group of alleged leftists who have joined the Likud in an effort to change it from within in order to implement the Left’s political agenda. The same has been happening in the rival “Blue and White” party, where many who previously voted for the extreme-left Democratic Israel party have joined in an effort to further steer it from the center to the Left.

Tracing down the origins of this cynical use of democracy is difficult simply because no one seemed to have paid attention...

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