Two of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's most formidable political rivals said on Sunday they were joining forces in a bid to oust his coalition government in the upcoming election expected later this year.
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," Lapid said standing alongside Bennett at a joint news conference.
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, Netanyahu has become a polarising figure at home and abroad.
JOINING FORCES ONCE MORE
Bennett and Lapid have joined forces before, putting an end to Netanyahu's successive 12-year tenure in a 2021 election, only to form a coalition government that with a thin majority and deeply divided over major issues like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 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 Netanyahu's traditional ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies out.
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 Netanyahu's security credentials in tatters and polls since then have predicted that he will lose the next election, due by the end of October.
Netanyahu, the most dominant Israeli politician of his generation, has shown remarkable political survival skills in the past, however.
On Sunday, he posted a 2021 photo of Bennett and Lapid with UAL head Mansour Abbas. "They did it once, they'll do it again," Netanyahu's Telegram post said, an apparent swipe at their short-lived 2021 coalition that included UAL.
Bennett said that 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.
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," Lapid said standing alongside Bennett at a joint news conference.
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, Netanyahu has become a polarising figure at home and abroad.
JOINING FORCES ONCE MORE
Bennett and Lapid have joined forces before, putting an end to Netanyahu's successive 12-year tenure in a 2021 election, only to form a coalition government that with a thin majority and deeply divided over major issues like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 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 Netanyahu's traditional ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies out.
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 Netanyahu's security credentials in tatters and polls since then have predicted that he will lose the next election, due by the end of October.
Netanyahu, the most dominant Israeli politician of his generation, has shown remarkable political survival skills in the past, however.
On Sunday, he posted a 2021 photo of Bennett and Lapid with UAL head Mansour Abbas. "They did it once, they'll do it again," Netanyahu's Telegram post said, an apparent swipe at their short-lived 2021 coalition that included UAL.
Bennett said that 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.
