Lapid unveils Yesh Atid lineup for B’Yachad electoral slate

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid on Saturday revealed the members of his Yesh Atid party who will be included on B’Yachad’s electoral slate in the October 27 election.

In the No. 2 spot behind Lapid is MK Merav Ben-Ari, followed by Maj. Gen. (res.) Noam Tibon, MK Meirav Cohen and MK Ram Ben Barak, with women holding four of the top 10 spots allocated to Yesh Atid and seven of the top 15.

“If we want to rehabilitate the country, there is no better way to do so than to give power to these people,” Lapid said of his slate in a post to party activists.

As part of Lapid’s agreement with former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who leads B’Yachad, Yesh Atid will receive four of the top 10 spots on the joint list of candidates and around half of the first 15 spots overall.

The remaining members of the list announced are Naor Shiri, Vladimir Beliak, Yorai Lahav-Hertzanu, Yasmin Sacks-Fridman, Neta Attias, Moshe Turpaz, Simon Davidson, Shelly Tal Meron, Roni Fantanesh Malkai and Mati Sarfatti Harcavi.

Bennett and Lapid announced their joint run in April, bringing Bennett’s newly formed party and Yesh Atid together on a joint electoral slate. At the launch, Bennett declared that “the era of division is over,” while Lapid called on Israel’s political center to rally behind Bennett in an effort to form the next government.

Bennett and Lapid previously partnered in the eight-party coalition formed after the 2021 election, which ended Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12 consecutive years as prime minister. Bennett initially served as premier under a rotation agreement with Lapid, who took over when the coalition collapsed in 2022.

The fresh alliance initially appeared to give the two opposition leaders significant momentum. A Channel 12 poll published the day after the merger projected B’Yachad to win 26 seats, narrowly ahead of Likud at 25. Bennett’s and Lapid’s parties had received a combined 28 seats when polled separately days earlier. (Yesh Atid won 24 seats in the 2022 election; Bennett did not run.)

But B’Yachad’s support fell sharply as Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party began to climb in popularity in June. Polls earlier this week showed that the alliance was heading for roughly 12-15 seats, while the former IDF chief has surged to around 22-26, leaving fewer realistic places on the joint slate for incumbent Yesh Atid lawmakers.

The unveiling of the list came after six sitting Yesh Atid lawmakers announced they wouldn’t be running for the party again, though they will remain members. The lawmakers stepping aside include longtime Yesh Atid figures Meir Cohen, Mickey Levy and Karine Elharrar, as well as Debbie Biton, Tatiana Mazarsky and Michal Shir. Cohen, Levy and Elharrar were founding members of Yesh Atid, which first entered the Knesset in 2013.

Outgoing Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern has joined Eisenkot’s party, and former party colleague Yoav Segalovitz is running on the Ra’am slate, though he has not joined the mainly Arab party.

By the end of June, Eisenkot was accusing Bennett and Lapid of having weakened the anti-Netanyahu camp by rejecting his earlier proposal for a three-way “super-party.” He argued that a large centrist slate alongside separate parties to its left and right would have maximized the opposition’s electoral strength.

The shifting balance has also revived speculation about further consolidation in the opposition. Bennett and Eisenkot met last weekend to discuss a possible merger, Channel 12 reported Friday, though the two have not reached an agreement. Knesset rosters must be finalized by Tuesday, September 8.