Former Israeli Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid have announced the merger of their political parties in an effort to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government. Right-wing politician Naftali Bennett and centrist Yair Lapid are joining forces ahead of a Knesset vote expected later this year.
The merger combines Bennett 2026 and the centrist party Yesh Atid, also known as There is a Future, into a single faction called Together. This new political entity, which will be headed by Bennett, aims to unite a fragmented opposition against the current administration.
Bennett and Lapid previously served as prime ministers under a rotation agreement as part of a coalition government formed in 2021. The alliance comes as polls since the 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel predict that Netanyahu will lose the next election, which is due by the end of October. The newly formed party could potentially outpoll Netanyahu’s Likud party in the upcoming vote.