From the Liveblog of
Thursday, August 6, 2026
Ex-Likud ministers announce breakaway party aiming to be ‘new political home’ on right
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Gilad Erdan and Yuli Edelstein, both former senior members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, announce the formation of a breakaway faction that will compete against their former party in the October election.
They say the new party, which doesn’t yet have a name, will support universal conscription while sticking to other longtime right-wing values.
“I’ve been a right-winger my whole life, I’ve never zigzagged,” Erdan says in a press conference, professing his support for West Bank settlements and opposition to a Palestinian state. But he says Likud has departed from other core values it once prized, like responsibility and mutual respect.
“I staunchly oppose the worldview of the left,” he says. “But I’ve never hated those who thought differently from me. I never spoke about their roots, their families or their way of life.”
Erdan emphasizes that his party won’t join a narrow coalition with left-wing parties.
Edelstein says he and Erdan are building “a new political home that will give voice to the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who feel they don’t have anyone to vote for anymore,” according to Hebrew media reports.
It will push for a quasi-constitutional Basic Law obligating all sectors of society to either enlist in the military or perform national civilian service.
The Haredi political parties, which are allied with Likud, have opposed any effort to halt the blanket exemptions from conscription that have long been afforded to ultra-Orthodox men. A Likud-backed bill proposed last year attempted to extend those exemptions for yeshiva students.
Arab Israelis are also not required to do national service.
“The law will establish a simple principle: In the State of Israel, every citizen has rights and also duties,” Erdan says. “Every citizen will serve in the military or national service.”
Previous elections have seen a succession of breakaway parties from Likud, some of which have ended up rejoining Netanyahu’s party down the line.
The Times of Israel Community.