From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, May 12, 2026
Lapid: Political merger with Bennett is about ‘restoring hope to the country’
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Addressing his and former prime minister Naftali Bennett’s Together party’s first campaign rally in Tel Aviv, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid declares that his Yesh Atid faction will bring a motion to dissolve the Knesset next week, generating intense applause from thousands of supporters at the Tel Aviv expo.
“After four years in which each of us felt alone, after four years of rifts and division and disunity [we are] restoring hope to the country,” Lapid says, declaring that his and Bennett’s decision to merge their lists was “not about politics” but rather “about our soldiers in Lebanon and Gaza who expect more from us. About the next generation of young Israelis, who will be poorer than their parents. About the fact that it’s always darkest before dawn.”
“Bennett and I don’t pretend to agree on everything. He’s a right-winger, I’m a centrist, we have disagreements, and that’s good. With that, we’re coming before and saying to Israeli society: Look, here are people who don’t agree on everything and know how to work together. Who know how to build trust and friendship for a cause greater than themselves. For too long we’ve let our differences define us. This time, we decided to start with what unites us. Before all our disagreements, we are patriots, we are Zionists, we believe in a Jewish and democratic state, and we believe in each other,” Lapid tells the crowd.
Bennett, he continues, “was an excellent prime minister” and will be able to “lead a group of strong and good people who will bring the change that is as necessary as the air we breathe.”
“The current government tells you that what runs this country is ‘power, money, and status.’ We offer a different formula. What built our connection is trust, friendship, and values,” he declares. “I want to tell all those who complimented me for putting my ego aside, you are wrong, I did not put my ego aside– I put my heart in the right place. Behind our soldiers, behind our children, behind people who work hard and can’t make ends meet, behind a friend whom I believe that together with – we can bring change.”
Bennett, “the former and next prime minister of Israel,” is “someone who gives me hope,” Lapid adds.
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