Over the past decade, Yesh Atid became one of Israel’s largest and most stable political parties, including as a contender for the premiership. But ahead of the coming election, it is steadily coming apart. Of the 24 seats the party won four years ago, only 13 lawmakers are expected to remain on its slate for the Oct. 27 election.
The alliance with former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, combined with the approaching deadline for unveiling the candidate list on Sunday, has prompted a growing number of lawmakers who realize they are unlikely to receive winnable spots to announce a temporary departure from political life. During the past Knesset term, Yesh Atid faced a wave of departures by senior figures, some of them among the party’s founders.
Thirteen of Yesh Atid's 24 lawmakers will not run in the coming election; party chairman Yair Lapid
Orna Barbivai left to run for mayor of Tel Aviv, while former minister Yoel Razvozov departed for a career in the private sector and business. Boaz Toporovsky, one of Yesh Atid’s founders, announced in June that he was leaving political life. Two longtime party figures and close allies of Yair Lapid, Meir Cohen and Mickey Levy, announced Monday that they were stepping aside to make room for younger lawmakers.
Others who left include Elazar Stern, who joined Gadi Eisenkot, and Ron Katz, who returned to civilian life. Idan Roll left Yesh Atid in January 2025, formed the National Majority faction and later announced that he, too, was leaving the Knesset and political life. Yoav Segalovich, considered close to Lapid, left the party to join forces with Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas. On Tuesday morning, lawmakers Tatiana Mazarsky and Debbie Biton also announced that they would not be part of the slate, though both stressed that they were remaining members of the party.
Behind the scenes, pressure is mounting in Yesh Atid ahead of the filing of candidate lists and the allocation of top slots. The slate will be unveiled Sunday, but in recent days lawmakers, particularly those lower down the pecking order, have been receiving subtle signals that their chances of securing a winnable spot in the next Knesset are slim. Many are choosing to step aside before the slate is formally announced. Those departing have published photos with Lapid, who in most cases has also posted farewell messages of his own.
Alongside the long list of serving Yesh Atid lawmakers, Bennett himself has brought 16 new candidates into the joint slate. Some are expected to be placed among the top five, including Keren Turner and Liran Avisar Ben Horin. With the merger creating an unusually crowded field of candidates, party officials said a selection process was necessary. Some of those stepping aside, including Cohen and Levy, are expected to receive symbolic roles within the party apparatus, a move intended to underscore that the departures were amicable.
Yesh Atid entered this election campaign in one of the deepest crises since its founding, with polls predicting it would win only a single-digit number of seats. Bennett and Lapid joined forces in an effort to stop the party’s slide. But the move also halted some of Bennett’s relative momentum, reflecting the difficulty many voters have had accepting the alliance.