Our guest this week is Member of Knesset Yossi Shain, who joins the podcast to discuss how Yisrael Beitenu, his party, is preparing for the November 1 election. Shain argues that the secular right-wing party led by Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman represents 'the true right-wing' in Israel, unlike the religious and far-right alliance of parties that was merged last week under pressure from opposition leader Netanyahu. 

Shain also explains how Lieberman, who has a long history of harsh statements against Israel's Arab politicians, found himself in a coalition together with Mansour Abbas of the United Arab List. In his view,  Lieberman hasn’t changed; but Mansour Abbas recognized Israel as a Jewish state, which made it possible for Yisrael Beitenu to cooperate with him. 

In other news, Meretz elected Zehava Galon as its old-new leader; Prime Minister Yair Lapid had a heart-to-heart with President Biden about Iran, and Israel narrowly averted a teacher's strike ahead of the new school year. But will any of it matter to the voters by November?

Each week, hosts Anshel Pfeffer and Dahlia Scheindlin discuss all the news, polls, history and party trivia you need to know for Israel's upcoming election. 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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