From the Liveblog of
Saturday, April 18, 2026
Bennett, Eisenkot and Lapid reportedly holding contacts on forming joint ‘New Israel’ party
Ariela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, ex-chief of the military Gadi Eisenkot and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid are holding “contacts” to form a new joint party called “New Israel,” Channel 12 news reports.
According to the report, representatives for the three men are “discussing” a merger ahead of the upcoming elections, set for October.
One idea being discussed, the report says, is to hold “primaries” in 15 locations nationwide to ascertain who should lead the merged list in the general elections to be held later this year.
Eisenkot, who heads the Yashar! party, was first reported to have proposed a merger in January with Bennett and Lapid, both of whom have courted the former IDF commander for their own parties.
Yashar! and Bennett 2026 have consistently polled in recent months as the strongest parties in the opposition bloc, with surveys showing they would be the largest factions after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud. Each would secure 16 seats if elections were held today, according to a recent survey by Zman Yisrael, The Times of Israel’s Hebrew-language sister site.
In contrast, Lapid’s Yesh Atid — currently the largest opposition party and the second-largest Knesset faction with 24 seats — would drop to just five seats, according to the survey, just one above the minimum that parties must pick up in elections to enter parliament.
However, if Eisenkot, Lapid and Bennett ran together, their combined list would receive 38 seats, making it the largest faction in the Knesset, though it would not significantly change the size of the rival blocs, the poll found.
Sam Sokol and Tal Schneider contributed to this report.
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