Yair Golan urges center-left merger with Lapid, Gantz to build a united front against Netanyahu

The Democrats party leader Yair Golan calls for a pre-election merger between his left-wing party, Yair Lapid’s center-left Yesh Atid and Benny Gantz’s centrist National Unity, which will compete with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc for the leadership of Israel.

“We must unite before the elections and form the largest party within the bloc, a party that will be the alternative to lead the next government and set Israel’s course,” Golan says at a conference titled “Democratic Israel Will Win,” hosted by the Berl Katznelson Foundation.

He urges Lapid and Gantz to “get under the stretcher” and work together to offer voters what he refers to as a democratic Zionist alternative.

Golan emphasizes the need to rebuild Israel’s political, security and democratic backbone, sharply criticizing the current right-wing government as “anti-Zionist and anti-democratic.” He says the only viable path forward includes ending the war against Hamas, securing the return of the hostages held in Gaza, and pursuing a clear diplomatic horizon regarding the Palestinians.

Golan also stresses a broader united front, saying: “We — The Democrats, Lapid, Gantz, [Gadi] Eisenkot, [Avigdor] Liberman, and [Naftali] Bennett, once he officially joins [the race] — we are all on the same side. This is our common ground. This is the next unity government.”