Report: Senior right-wing figures organizing new ‘Likud B’ party ahead of upcoming elections

By Ariela Karmel

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25 April 2026, 9:11 pm

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Ariela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.

MK Yuli Edelstein speaks during a conference at Reichman University in Herzliya, on January 13, 2026. (Tal Gal/Flash90)

Senior right-wing figures, including members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, are organizing a new political party referred to as “Likud B,” aimed at creating a more ‘statesmanlike’ alternative to the ruling party, “free of extremists,” according to a Channel 12 report.

According to the unsourced report, the effort involves both current and former Likud figures who have had tensions with Netanyahu, including Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, who previously led the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee before being ousted by the coalition last year due to his blocking their draft exemption law for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students, and Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel, who has also opposed the legislation.

A member of Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope party, which merged with Likud last year, Haskel told the Times of Israel in an interview that the merger had made her “politically homeless.”

Other figures said to be involved include former Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, who served as a Likud MK and minister for 10 years before breaking away to form the Kulanu party, later joining a Netanyahu-led coalition and serving as finance minister from 2015 to 2020, and former UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan, who is reportedly weighing a future bid to lead Likud.

The group has already held initial talks centered on forming a broad government without extremist parties, but has yet to agree on whether to support a Netanyahu-led coalition or back a government headed by opposition leaders Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett or former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot, who have emerged as the leading frontrunners to unseat Netanyahu.

Meanwhile, former MK Matan Kahana, who resigned from the Knesset last year to join former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party, says that he will remain a member of Yashar, amid speculation that he may defect to join Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s party ahead of upcoming elections.

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.