Two of Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s most formidable political rivals say they are joining forces in an attempt to oust the Israeli prime minister\u2019s coalition government in the election expected later this year.<\/p>\n
The former prime ministers \u2013 rightwing Naftali Bennett<\/a> and centrist Yair Lapid \u2013 issued statements announcing the merger of their parties, Bennett 2026 and Yesh Atid (There is a Future).<\/p>\n \u201cWe are standing here together for the sake of our children. The state of Israel<\/a> must change direction,\u201d Lapid said standing alongside Bennett at a joint news conference on Sunday.<\/p>\n Bennett said the new party would be called Together and that he would be its leader. \u201cAfter 30 years, it is time to part with Netanyahu and open a new chapter for Israel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid joined forces previously, though their coalition was shortlived. Photograph: Ariel Schalit\/AP<\/p>\n Since his first term in the 1990s, Netanyahu has become a polarising figure at home and abroad. Bennett and Lapid have joined forces before<\/a>, putting an end to Netanyahu\u2019s successive 12-year tenure in a 2021 election, only to form a coalition government that, with a thin majority and deeply divided over issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, survived barely 18 months<\/a>.<\/p>\n Their coalition included for the first time in Israel\u2019s history a party drawn from the country\u2019s Arab minority \u2013 Palestinian by heritage, Israeli by citizenship \u2013 the United Arab List (UAL). Prior to that the duo muscled their way into his 2013 coalition government in a move that left out Netanyahu\u2019s traditional ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies.<\/p>\n Netanyahu, Israel\u2019s longest-serving prime minister, made a comeback when he won the November 2022 election<\/a> and formed the most rightwing government in Israel\u2019s history<\/a>.<\/p>\n But Hamas\u2019s 2023 attack on southern Israel<\/a>, which plunged the Middle East into turmoil, with Israel fighting on multiple fronts, left Netanyahu\u2019s security credentials in tatters and polls since then have predicted that he will lose the next election, due by the end of October.<\/p>\n Netanyahu, the most dominant Israeli politician of his generation, has shown remarkable political survival skills in the past, however. On Sunday, he posted a 2021 photo of Bennett and Lapid with the UAL leader, Mansour Abbas. \u201cThey did it once, they\u2019ll do it again,\u201d Netanyahu\u2019s Telegram post said, an apparent swipe at their short-lived 2021 coalition that included UAL.<\/p>\n Bennett said that he would not seek a coalition with Arab parties again and ruled out ceding any land to enemies, an apparent reference to the Palestinians\u2019 goal of establishing an independent state in territories occupied by Israel.<\/p>\n Bennett, 54, a pugnacious former army commando turned tech millionaire, has been trailing Netanyahu in election polls. A 23 April survey by Israel\u2019s N12 News found Bennett securing 21 of the Knesset\u2019s 120 seats, against 25 seats for Netanyahu\u2019s Likud.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s then PM Naftali Bennett talks to Joe Biden (centre) and Boris Johnson (right) at Cop26 in 2021. Photograph: AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n It found Lapid\u2019s party securing only seven seats, down from the 24 it currently holds, but with Netanyahu\u2019s coalition of rightwing and religious parties commanding only 50 seats, against at least 60 seats for Bennett and Lapid\u2019s probable coalition that would include several smaller factions.<\/p>\n The survey matched previous polls by academic institutions and Israeli media, which have put Bennett as the top contender against Netanyahu, though the political map could still shift and change.<\/p>\n Lapid, 62, a telegenic former TV news anchor who writes pop songs and thrillers, speaks as the voice of Israel\u2019s secular middle class, which has become increasingly incensed by what it sees as an unfair tax and military service burden.<\/p>\n Yair Lapid attends a 2024 rally in Tel Aviv for hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Photograph: Jack Guez\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Netanyahu\u2019s ultra-religious political allies have been seeking an exemption for their communities<\/a> \u2013 who have low employment and many state benefits \u2013 from the conscript military.<\/p>\n It is a hot-button issue in Israel that has become all the more pressing since the military has warned of being over stretched and with the last two years exacting the highest military death toll in decades.<\/p>\n Both Lapid and Bennett have made it a central issue for their campaign. They have also criticised Netanyahu for failing to leverage military gains into strategic wins over Iran and the groups it supports in Lebanon and Gaza \u2013 Hezbollah<\/a> and Hamas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two of Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s most formidable political rivals say they are joining forces in an attempt to oust…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-412940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}