From the Liveblog of
Sunday, June 29, 2025
Shaked, seen chatting with Liberman, said pushing for opposition to ‘join forces’ for next 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"
Ex-justice minister Ayelet Shaked, a longtime political ally of former prime minister Naftali Bennett, is photographed sitting and chatting with Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman over a glass of wine.
According to national broadcaster Kan, Shaked is pushing for opposition parties to “join forces” in preparation for the next national election. Speaking with Channel 12 over the weekend, Bennett said that his new political party, known by the interim name of Bennett 2026, has not decided on a candidate list yet and declined to confirm or deny whether he would run together with Shaked.
While Shaked was not listed among the founders of the new party when it was registered, she is widely expected to join.
Last month, Channel 12 reported that, in an apparent effort to prevent a repeat of the defections that brought down his previous government, Bennett has structured his party so that he will be able to maintain complete control over it for the better part of the coming decade — including by retaining a monopoly on the selection of candidates.
Liberman and Bennett were photographed meeting last year and Liberman told The Times of Israel in late 2024 that, while no decision on a partnership had yet been made, “if we see in the polls that running together will bring more seats, we will run together [and] if we see that separately [we can] bring more seats, we will run separately.”
A poll taken last week found that if elections were held today, the current pro-Netanyahu coalition bloc would win only 49 of the Knesset’s 120 seats while the opposition parties would win 61.
Netanyahu’s Likud was forecasted to win 26 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, up four from prewar polls, while Bennett 2026 would win 24 seats.
על כוס יין: יממה אחרי שבנט רמז שאינו מחוייב לה – תיעוד הפגישה היום בין ליברמן לשקד בתל אביב. שקד דוחפת לאיחוד מפלגות בימין מול נתניהו (ליברמן, בנט ועוד) https://t.co/V6zvNeAYru pic.twitter.com/i1HMPNVerh
— מיכאל שמש Michael Shemesh (@shemeshmicha) June 29, 2025
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