From the Liveblog of
Friday, July 10, 2026
After merger, Yoaz Hendel says he’ll favor repeat elections over coalition with Netanyahu’s Haredi allies
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After his centrist Reservists party merged this week with former Blue and White MK Chili Tropper and others to form a new party, former MK Yoaz Hendel promised that he would not form a coalition with the bloc of ultra-Orthodox and far-right parties supporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that form the current coalition.
Hendel tells the Ynet news site in an interview that under no circumstances would he join a governing coalition that depends on “non-Zionist” elements, including the existing Haredi and Arab parties.
He insists that he would prefer to trigger repeat elections if the only alternative is handing the pro-Netanyahu bloc a parliamentary majority to pass laws enshrining sweeping ultra-Orthodox military exemptions. But he says he will sit with Netanyahu under a broad government that includes both Likud and the major center-left parties running against him.
“I think Netanyahu needs to go home and I will never agree to make up the 61 seats for him” in the 120-member Knesset, he says.
Both Netanyahu and his rivals Gadi Eisenkot and Naftali Bennett have ruled out joining a government headed by a premier from the opposing bloc.
The Times of Israel Community.