Opposition leader Yair Lapid and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett are set to announce Sunday evening that their parties will merge ahead of the next national election, according to a statement from Bennett’s office.
The statement said the two leaders will present the move as “a first step in the process of repairing the State of Israel,” by combining Lapid’s Yesh Atid party with a new political framework led by Bennett, referred to as “Bennett 2026.”
Under the plan, the unified party would be headed by Bennett, a former prime minister who led a diverse coalition government from 2021 to 2022.
The statement described the merger as an effort to consolidate what it called the “bloc of change,” a term used in Israeli politics to describe parties seeking to replace the current governing coalition. It said the move would “put an end to internal battles” and allow the bloc to focus its efforts on winning the upcoming election decisively.
The decision followed Bennett’s argument that the bloc cannot win the upcoming election while divided, and that internal splits have weakened it. Bennett initially proposed that Gadi Eisenkot join a government under his leadership, but Eisenkot declined.
Bennett and Lapid conducted polls before making the dramatic decision to unite and met several times over the past week before finalizing the agreement and signing the merger Saturday night.
Lapid is expected to say at a news conference that he is backing Bennett, meaning there will be no joint leadership arrangement as there was in the past.
First published: 16:13, 04.26.26