Former IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot (Yashar) has proposed creating a unified list for the upcoming elections with former prime minister Naftali Bennett and opposition leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid).
Eisenkot’s office confirmed to The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that he had proposed this move to the rival party leaders, after this was initially reported on the N12 news site.
His proposal to join forces with Bennett and Lapid aims to gain enough seats in the elections to beat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud.
Once the election date was established, the leader of such a unified list would be announced. Elections are currently scheduled for no later than October 2026.
A united bloc encompassing Eisenkot’s, Lapid’s, and Bernette’s parties would be centrist, the former IDF chief said.
Eisenkot stipulates list would agree on shared principles
Eisenkot’s proposal also stipulates that the list would agree on shared guiding principles that partners in the broader opposition bloc, namely party leaders MK Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beytenu) and Yair Golan (the Democrats), would also sign.
Neither Lapid nor Bennett responded openly to Eisenkot’s proposal. Bennett’s office declined to comment to the Post regarding the ex-IDF chief’s offer.
However, on Tuesday evening, Bennett released a statement asserting that he aims to become Israel’s next prime minister. “I invite Netanyahu to a confrontation, anytime, anywhere,” he said.
“I’m not looking to humiliate Netanyahu; I intend to replace him. I need to bring everyone in. I don’t want to trample anyone – just win,” he said at an activists’ conference in Karmiel.
Eisenkot has reportedly conducted dozens of in-depth talks with Bennett and Lapid over sections of the proposal he formulated.
In polls, his party has appeared to receive around nine seats, slightly less than Lapid’s party. Meanwhile, Bennett has come out with around 22 seats as runner-up after Netanyahu’s Likud.
Lapid has been continuously attempting to topple Netanyahu’s government in his role as opposition leader. He has also said that only Yesh Atid would be able to successfully form a government by coordinating with the opposition parties.
Eisenkot announced in September that he would be running in the next elections with a new party called Yashar.
Bennett had registered a new party of his own, titled Bennett 2026, in April.
Forming joint electoral lists among separate parties is a well-established practice in Israeli politics. In the most recent elections, several such alliances entered the Knesset, including Hadash-Ta’al and United Torah Judaism, which, ever since 1992, have united Agudat Yisrael and Degel Hatorah.
However, alliances have been known to be formed only to often be dissolved later. For instance, the National Unity Party, which brought together MK Benny Gantz’s Blue and White and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope, broke apart in 2024.
By contrast, the complete merger of parties into a single political entity has been relatively rare in recent years, although in 2024 it occurred with the left-wing Labor and Meretz, which merged to form the Democrats Party.