Bennett formally announces ‘experienced and tenacious’ B’Yachad slate, vows ‘repairs from day one’

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett presents the final list of candidates for B’Yachad, the party he founded with Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid, which he calls “the most talented, results-driven and dedicated slate to run for the Knesset in a generation.”

“This is Israel’s team of doers!,” he continues in a speech to supporters at an event in Tel Aviv. “The most experienced and tenacious parliamentarians, the best directors-general in the country, fighters and heroes of October 7 who saved the country once and are now joining us to save it again.”

Both Bennett’s and Lapid’s factions announced their lists of candidates yesterday and earlier today, but this is the first presentation of their final, combined roster ahead of Tuesday’s deadline for parties to submit their final slates for the October 27 election.

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, with candidates alternating between the two factions.

Bennett will lead the joint slate, with Lapid in second place, followed by Keren Terner, former director general of both the Finance and Transportation Ministries; Yesh Atid MK and Opposition Whip Merav Ben Ari; and Liran Avisar Ben-Horin, a former director general of the Communications Ministry.

Rounding out the top 10 are former IDF general Noam Tibon, who joined Yesh Atid last year, followed by former Ra’anana Municipality director general Michal Negri, former Blue and White lawmaker Eitan Ginzburg, Yesh Atid MK and former minister Meirav Cohen, and Yonatan Shalev, a 23-year-old military reservist activist.

In eleventh place is Bruria Naim Arman, followed by Yesh Atid MK Ram Ben Barak, Amir Strugo, Yesh Atid MK Naor Shiri, Nissan Ze’evi, and Yesh Atid MK Vladimir Beliak.

The party is projected to win about 12 to 15 seats in next month’s election, a result that would make it the Knesset’s third-biggest party. The slate has a significant number of former civil servants and reservists.

“Israel is not being governed, and to fix Israel, we need the country’s very best managers and doers — people who know how to begin making repairs from day one,” says Bennett.

He repeats his campaign pledges to establish a state commission of inquiry into the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught; draft ultra-Orthodox men into the military; and declare Qatar an enemy state.