‘Simply incorrect’: Bennett dismisses report claiming he’s mulling canceling merger with Lapid amid drop in polls

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett has in recent days examined the possibility of reversing his merger with Opposition Leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party in the upcoming election, amid differences between them and a consistent drop in opinion polls, Channel 13 reports.

Bennett dismisses the report as false.

The network cites unnamed officials in the Together alliance as saying Bennett’s associates are arguing that the center-left Lapid has alienated right-wing voters, and that strategist Lior Chorev is failing to contain the crisis. It adds that campaign managers have had serious clashes between them.

During a press conference in Tel Aviv, Bennett denies the story, calling it “simply incorrect.”

Asked if he regrets merging his Bennett 2026 list with Yesh Atid, Bennett responds that “the person who benefits the most from divisions inside the bloc is [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu… and therefore we must not only preserve this union, but increase and expand unity further and further.”

Despite the fact that Together has been sinking in the polls while Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party has been rising and is now polling even with Together, Bennett continues to insist he is the best candidate to lead the opposition bloc, arguing that “over the past 16 years, whenever the opposition bloc…placed someone who is not right-wing at the helm, they always lost.”

“The only way to win is a united bloc,” he adds. “We need to learn from the lessons of Meretz and Labor in the previous elections, those splits led to a loss. This means we need to draw lessons and apply them. We need to unite the bloc, and that’s how we win.”