Tzipi Livni if they won enough votes, though Livni also stated she would step back if her participation presented a hurdle to coalition building. Widely seen as being a "game-changer" in what was initially thought would be an effectively uncontested election resulting in Netanyahu's reelection, the partnership between Livni and Herzog created significant momentum and galvanized Israel's center-left voters, who saw the partnership as having a realistic chance to form a government, something which had been absent in the previous elections. Indeed, many opinion polls during the campaign showed Likud and the Zionist Union in dead heat, and the few weeks leading
Tzipi Livni multiple policy disagreements boiled over, and Netanyahu fired Livni along with Finance Minister Yair Lapid from their posts, accusing the two of plotting a "putsch" to overthrow the government. Livni and Lapid had often criticized government decisions, which Netanyahu claimed amounted to an "opposition within the coalition," and made it "impossible to govern." A particular source of frustration for Netanyahu was Livni's control of the powerful ministerial committee on legislation. In December 2014 (after Livni had been dismissed as a cabinet minister), Secretary of State John Kerry told European Union ambassadors that his stance against a unilateral Palestinian measure at