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The two politicians\u2019 alliance is aimed at uniting a fragmented opposition against current PM Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 26 Apr 2026<\/span>26 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Two \u2060of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin \u2060Netanyahu\u2019s biggest political rivals say they are joining forces in a bid to oust his coalition government in the upcoming election expected later this year.<\/p>\n The former prime ministers \u2013 right-wing Naftali Bennett and centrist Yair \u2060Lapid \u2013 issued statements on Sunday announcing the merger of their parties, Bennett 2026 and There is a Future.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Their alliance is aimed at uniting a fragmented opposition that appears to have little in common beyond their shared hostility toward Netanyahu.<\/p>\n Bennett\u2019s office said the new party will be called Together, and that he will be its leader.<\/p>\n \u201cI am pleased to announce that tonight, together with my friend Yair Lapid, I am taking the most Zionist and patriotic step we have ever taken for our country,\u201d Bennett said in a joint televised statement with Lapid.<\/p>\n During the televised statement, Lapid said: \u201cBennett is a right-wing politician, but an honest one, and there is trust between us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis move is intended to unite the bloc, put an end to internal divisions, and focus all efforts on winning the critical upcoming elections \u2013 and leading Israel \u2060forward into the future,\u201d Lapid also said.<\/p>\n Bennett said that if elected, he would establish a national commission of inquiry into what he calls failures leading up to the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack \u2013 something the current Netanyahu government has rejected.<\/p>\n Lapid and Bennett have been outspoken critics of Netanyahu\u2019s handling of the country\u2019s wars since that attack, with Lapid labeling the two-week ceasefire agreed with Iran a \u201cpolitical disaster\u201d.<\/p>\n Bennett and Lapid have joined forces before, putting an end to Netanyahu\u2019s successive 12-year tenure in a 2021 election, only to form a coalition government that survived barely 18 months.<\/p>\n Before that, they muscled their way into his 2013 coalition government in a \u200cmove that left Netanyahu\u2019s traditional ultra-Orthodox allies out.<\/p>\n Netanyahu, Israel\u2019s longest-serving prime minister, made a comeback when he won the November 2022 election and formed the most right-wing government in Israel\u2019s history.<\/p>\n But Hamas\u2019s October 2023 attack on southern Israel, which saw Israel respond with a genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza and attack several of its neighbours in recent years, left Netanyahu\u2019s security credentials in tatters. Polls since then have successively predicted that he will lose the next election, due by the end of October.<\/p>\n Bennett, 54, a former army commando turned tech millionaire, has been trailing Netanyahu \u2060in election polls. An April 23 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 It found Lapid\u2019s party securing only seven seats, down from the 24 it currently holds.<\/p>\n The survey was on par with previous polls by academic institutions and other Israeli media, which \u2060have put Bennett as the top contender against Netanyahu.<\/p>\n Lapid, 62, a former TV news anchor, claims to represent Israel\u2019s secular middle class, which has become increasingly incensed by what it sees as an unfair tax and military service burden.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The two politicians\u2019 alliance is aimed at uniting a fragmented opposition against current PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Published On 26 Apr 202626 Apr 2026 Two \u2060of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin \u2060Netanyahu\u2019s biggest political rivals say they are joining forces in a bid to oust his coalition government in the upcoming election expected later this year. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
Joining forces once again<\/h2>\n
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