Former PM Naftali Bennett registers new political party ahead of 2026 elections
Recent polls show new party beating out Netanyahu’s Likud if elections were held today, though source close to Bennett says move does not constitute an official announcement
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who is widely believed to be preparing to run in the next national election, announced on Monday evening the registration of a new political party under the temporary name “Bennett 2026.”
Bennett, who led the now-defunct right-wing Yamina party, has been out of office since the 2022 collapse of his diverse coalition government, which in 2021 ousted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the premiership after 12 consecutive years, during which Israel underwent unprecedented political turmoil, including four national elections in three years.
The registration of Bennett’s new party was immediately welcomed by National Unity chairman Benny Gantz, who served under Bennett as defense minister in 2021, and opposition leader and former Bennett ally Yair Lapid, who tweeted that “Israel needs a good government.”
Bennett and Lapid both served as prime ministers as part of a rotation agreement between the two.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, meanwhile, tweeted a cartoon of Bennett pulling up to a bus stop and offering a ride to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and other public figures repudiated by the Netanyahu government.
Speculation about Bennett’s return to politics has been circulating for some time, with Channel 12 reporting in September 2024 that the national-religious politician had started making preparations for the formation of a new party, contacting more than 100 former activists.
Bennett has also met with various opposition figures over the past year. New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar, then a member of the opposition, told The Times of Israel last summer that he had met with Bennett and understood he intended to make a comeback.
The former prime minister has also been photographed meeting with Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman, who told The Times of Israel last October that the two still “speak from time to time” but that no final decisions had been made about a rumored joint run.
“To replace this government, we need more seats. If we see in the polls that running together will bring more seats, we will run together,” Liberman said at the time.
There is currently no positive indication that Bennett is planning on a joint run with any of the current opposition factions.
Bennett himself hinted at his return last June, expressing hope that it would be possible to rebuild a broad unity coalition similar to the one he established with Lapid in 2021.
“Three years ago today, I took the oath of allegiance as the 13th prime minister of the State of Israel. For a little over a year, I served you, the citizens of Israel, when I was at the head of a government that up until that moment would have seemed impossible,” he wrote in a lengthy post on social media platform X, noting that “ministers from the left and the right decided to put aside all the differences and come together for the sake of saving the State of Israel.”
“Today more than ever, the unimaginable reality in which we have been living since October 7 requires a leadership that knows how to unite the people and do the most basic thing that a government should do: to put the interest of the State of Israel before any other consideration, to act wisely in front of the international community, to bring all parts of the people into the circle of service and to conduct the campaign with clear goals until our enemies are defeated,” Bennett continued.
Though many Israelis are suffering from “existential anxiety” and “even now when everything seems impossible, it is possible,” he concluded — adding: “Friends, we did it then, and you can do it again.”
More recently, he told a private audience of US students in March that should he lead a government again in the future, it would not include Arab parties, as his previous government did, because this time around, the government “must be Zionists.”
Bennett included MK Mansour Abbas’s Islamist Ra’am, or United Arab List, party, in his coalition — a move that drew harsh criticism from other right-wing politicians.
Polling has shown Bennett pulling ahead of Netanyahu should he choose to run, with one Maariv poll published last week finding that a hypothetical Bennett party would garner 27 seats, compared to only 19 for Netanyahu’s Likud.
According to a recent Channel 12 survey, Bennett is the only politician polled who performs better than Netanyahu in a head-to-head matchup.
When asked who is better suited to serve as prime minister, 38% said Bennett, compared to 31% who said Netanyahu.
Speaking with The Times of Israel on Tuesday evening on condition of anonymity, a source familiar with Bennett’s thinking said that registering a new party is only the first step of the process of returning to politics and was not an official declaration of his political comeback.
Comparing the move to an American politician establishing an exploratory committee ahead of a possible campaign, the source said that Bennett currently does not have anyone on the payroll, no infrastructure in place and no candidate list, and is in no rush to declare a Knesset run anytime soon.
If Bennett chooses to run in 2026, this is the time to begin preparations, the source added.
Asked what Bennett would focus on in terms of policy should he return to the Prime Minister’s Office, the source replied that, among other issues, he would work to increase ultra-Orthodox enlistment and “getting back to normalcy.”
The Times of Israel Community.