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Sunday, April 26, 2026
Opposition source says Bennett, Lapid leaving door open for Gadi Eisenkot
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. 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"
There is still room for Yashar party chairman Gadi Eisenkot to join the united slate being established by former prime minister Naftali Bennett and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, an opposition source with knowledge of the matter tells The Times of Israel.
“The deal was finalized on Saturday night. The door’s definitely open for Gadi Eisenkot to join. Gadi’s a good guy. He could be a central player in this and he’s the one that called for the three-way joining of the parties. He’s been an advocate for it, so we certainly hope he joins. But this thing in and of itself is big and important and seismic in the Israeli political system,” says the source.
Asked about recent polls showing that if Eisenkot, Lapid and Bennett were to run together, their combined ticket would become the largest faction in the Knesset — though it would not significantly change the respective sizes of the two main rival blocs — the source indicates belief that in the end a united slate will be greater than the sum of its parts.
“There’s an element of it creating a sense of hope. It gives people something to believe in. It allows us to focus all our resources and our attention on winning the election, rather than the primaries in the bloc. It creates a wave of hope and positivity, which we hope will push everything forward. That’s what happened in Hungary. In the end, the polls were way off in Hungary,” the source asserts.
Channel 12 reported last week that Lapid, Bennett and Eisenkot had been holding contacts on the potential formation of a new joint party called “New Israel.”
According to the unsourced report, representatives for the three men discussed a merger ahead of the upcoming elections, set for October, hoping to present a united front against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Eisenkot, who heads the Yashar party and is a former IDF chief of staff, was first reported to have proposed a merger in January with Bennett and Lapid, both of whom have courted the former IDF commander for their own parties.
On Saturday evening, former MK Matan Kahana, who resigned from the Knesset last year to join former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party, said that he would remain a member of Yashar, amid speculation that he may defect to join Bennett’s party. Kahana previously served as an MK in Bennett’s Yamina party, and later a minister in his government, and has advocated for a merger between Eisenkot and Bennett. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment following the announcement of the Bennett-Lapid merger.
Bennett and Lapid worked together in 2021-2022 when they led a short-lived diverse coalition of right-wing, centrist and left-wing parties.
The Times of Israel Community.