Bennett issues public appeal to disaffected Likud members to join his party ahead of upcoming elections

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett issues a public appeal to disaffected Likud members to join his and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Together list, positioning it as an alternative to a ruling party that he says no longer reflects its founding values.

“I come from a Likud home,” Bennett says in a video posted to X, stating that both his parents voted for the party when it was “a party of unity, of nationalism, of love for the Land of Israel, a proper liberal party that built a wonderful country here.”

“Today’s Likud members of Knesset openly embrace criminals left and right and praise them. Today’s Likud promotes mass draft evasion for 100,000 of our young Haredi brothers who could relieve our children a bit from the Lebanese border,” he says, accusing the party of running “massive patronage mills at the expense of the citizens.”

Bennett urges Likud voters to jump ship for Together, which he calls “a real home for those who love the land of Israel, the people of Israel and the unity of Israel.”

Forty-two percent of Israelis who voted for Likud in the previous election are either considering or have decided to back a different party in the fall Knesset elections, according to a Channel 12 news poll broadcast Friday.

The poll showed 10% of those who backed Likud in 2022 will support Together; 6% will vote for former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot’s centrist Yashar party; 4% will back Avigdor Liberman’s secular right-wing Yisrael Beytenu party; 3% will cast a ballot for far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit Party; 2% will vote for Yoaz Hendel’s right-wing Reservists party; 1% will support Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party; and 1% will cast a vote for Bezalel Smotrich’s far-right Religious Zionism party.