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Monday, October 6, 2025
Lapid says he met with Bennett to coordinate bloc’s moves ahead of upcoming election
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"
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid and former prime minister Naftali Bennett met ahead of this evening’s Sukkot holiday, a spokesman for Lapid announces.
In a statement, the spokesman says that the two politicians had met to discuss “coordinating the bloc’s moves ahead of the upcoming elections.”
The so-called “change bloc” bloc comprises right-wing, centrist and left-wing parties that seek to provide an alternative to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s current, hard-right coalition.
Both Lapid and Bennett, who has formed a new party provisionally called Bennett 2026, are slated to attend a meeting of the leaders of the parties comprising the change bloc on October 8. The meeting will also be attended by Blue and White-National Unity chief Benny Gantz, Yisrael Beytenu party chairman Avigdor Liberman, “Yashar! With Eisenkot” chief Gadi Eisenkot, and The Democrats head Yair Golan.
Both Bennett and Gantz were absent from an earlier meeting of the bloc last month, with the former missing the sit-down in order to mark the 10th anniversary of his father’s death.
Though they are aligned with the bloc, Bennett and Gantz haven’t expressly stated they won’t sit in a government led by Netanyahu.
The Times of Israel Community.