Former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid said Sunday they were joining forces ahead of Israel’s next election, expected later this year, in a bid to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
In separate statements and at a joint news conference, Bennett and Lapid said they were merging their parties, Bennett 2026 and There is a Future.
Bennett said the new party would be called Together and that he would lead it. “After 30 years it is time to part with Netanyahu and open a new chapter for Israel,” he said.
Their previous 2021 coalition, which included the United Arab List, the first Arab party to join an Israeli governing coalition, lasted less than 18 months.
Netanyahu returned to office after the November 2022 election, leading what some have described as Israel’s most right-wing government. Since Hamas’ 2023 attack on southern Israel and the ensuing war, polls have indicated Netanyahu could lose the next election, which is due by the end of October.
On Sunday, Netanyahu posted a 2021 photo of Bennett and Lapid with United Arab List leader Mansour Abbas. “They did it once, they’ll do it again,” Netanyahu’s Telegram post said, referring to their previous coalition.
Bennett said he would not seek a coalition with Arab parties again and ruled out ceding land to enemies, in an apparent reference to Palestinian statehood in territories occupied by Israel.
An April 23 N12 News poll projected Bennett’s party at 21 seats in the 120-member Knesset, compared with 25 for Netanyahu’s Likud. The poll projected Lapid’s party at seven seats, down from 24 now, but showed Netanyahu’s bloc of right-wing and religious parties at 50 seats, compared with at least 60 for a likely Bennett-Lapid coalition with smaller factions.
Lapid and Bennett have also criticized Netanyahu over exemptions from military service sought by his ultra-Orthodox allies, as well as his handling of conflicts involving Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas.
