Israeli politicians are making up for a slow summer news cycle by issuing promises almost daily about which parties they will or will not accept as future coalition partners. With several parties each rejecting several others, can Israel ever form a government? Or does the long list of coalition-building pledges simply reveal how many of these vows will be broken in the future? The politics of coalition-building seem to have usurped issues and ideology, and they may just be a proxy for the underlying question of "yes" or "no" to Benjamin Netanyahu.

Special guest and Haaretz political columnist Ravit Hecht joins the podcast to analyze the situation. Meanwhile, Ayelet Shaked of Yamina joins with the small Derekh Eretz faction, which could either be a game-changer or not matter at all. Netanyahu and Lapid compete for foreign policy cachet, polls are stuck and party time this week goes back to 1949.

Each week, hosts Anshel Pfeffer and Dahlia Scheindlin will bring all the news and analysis an Israel-election junkie needs, including polls, guests and trivia tidbits about the strangest parties in Israeli history. Subscribe to the show on your podcast app, follow Dahlia (@dahliasc) and Anshel (@AnshelPfeffer) on twitter and read more of their articles and columns on Haaretz.com.

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