Netanyahu’s biggest rivals join forces for Israel’s next election

JERUSALEM - Two of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s most formidable political rivals said on April 26 they were joining forces in a bid to oust his coalition government in the upcoming election expected later in 2026.

The former prime ministers – right-wing Naftali Bennett and centrist Yair Lapid – issued statements announcing the merger of their parties, Bennett 2026 and There is a Future.

“We are standing here together for the sake of our children. The State of Israel must change direction,” Mr Lapid said, standing alongside Mr Bennett at a joint news conference.

Mr Bennett said the new party will be called Together, and that he will be its leader.

“After 30 years, it is time to part with Netanyahu and open a new chapter for Israel,” he said.

Since his first term in the 1990s, Mr Netanyahu has become a polarising figure at home and abroad.

Joining forces once more

Mr Bennett and Mr Lapid have joined forces before, putting an end to Mr Netanyahu’s successive 12-year tenure in a 2021 election, only to form a coalition government that survived barely 18 months.

Their coalition included for the first time in Israel’s history a party drawn from the country’s Arab minority – Palestinian by heritage, Israeli by citizenship – the United Arab List (UAL).

Before that, the duo muscled their way into his 2013 coalition government in a move that left Mr Netanyahu’s traditional ultra-Orthodox allies out.

Mr Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, made a comeback when he won the November 2022 election and formed the most right-wing government in Israel’s history.

But Hamas’ 2023 attack on southern Israel, which plunged the Middle East into turmoil and saw Israel fighting on multiple fronts, left Mr Netanyahu’s security credentials in tatters.

Polls since then have successively predicted that he will lose the next election, which is due by the end of October.

Mr Netanyahu, the most dominant Israeli politician of his generation, has shown remarkable political survival skills in the past, however.

On April 26, he posted a 2021 photo of Mr Bennett and Mr Lapid with UAL head Mansour Abbas. “They did it once, they’ll do it again,” Mr Netanyahu’s Telegram post said, an apparent swipe at their short-lived 2021 coalition that included UAL.

Mr Bennett said he will not seek a coalition with Arab parties again and ruled out ceding any land to enemies, an apparent reference to the Palestinians’ goal of establishing an independent state in territories occupied by Israel.

Shifting political map

Mr Bennett, 54, a former army commando turned tech millionaire, has been trailing Mr Netanyahu in election polls.

An April 23 survey by Israel’s N12 News found Mr Bennett securing 21 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, against 25 seats for Mr Netanyahu’s Likud.

It found Mr Lapid’s party securing only seven seats, down from the 24 it currently holds, but with Mr Netanyahu’s coalition of right-wing and religious parties commanding only 50 seats, against at least 60 seats for Mr Bennett and Mr Lapid’s likely coalition that would include several smaller factions.

The survey was on a par with previous polls by academic institutions and other Israeli media, which have put Mr Bennett as the top contender against Mr Netanyahu, though the political map could still shift and change.

Mr Lapid, 62, a former TV news anchor who writes pop songs and thrillers, speaks as the voice of Israel’s secular middle class, which has become increasingly incensed by what it sees as an unfair tax and military service burden.

Mr Netanyahu’s ultra-religious political allies have been seeking an exemption for their communities – who have low employment and many state benefits – from the conscript military.

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.

Both Mr Lapid and Mr Bennett have made it a central issue for their campaign. They have also criticised Mr Netanyahu for failing to leverage military gains into strategic wins over Iran and the groups it supports in Lebanon and Gaza – Hezbollah and Hamas. REUTERS