Veteran Likud members Erdan, Edelstein said to make progress toward forming new party

Former UN ambassador and ex-Likud minister Gilad Erdan and Likud MK Yuli Edelstein have reached initial agreements regarding the potential establishment of a new political party together, with “significant progress” made in recent talks, a report said Wednesday.

According to Channel 12, which did not cite sources, the two are working together closely and waiting on former finance minister Moshe Kahlon to decide whether to join the initiative once court proceedings against him for securities fraud end next week with a plea bargain.

Erdan and Edelstein are in talks with other right-wing figures about joining the party, according to the report, including former Beit Shemesh mayor Aliza Bloch, former IDF general Ofer Winter, who is widely expected to enter politics, and former fire commissioner Dedi Simchi, who has said that he will run for the Knesset. But the network said matters are uncertain, particularly regarding the latter two.

Decisions are expected to be made in the next two weeks, the report said.

Erdan, Edelstein, and Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel have all been mentioned in recent weeks in reports about the possible formation of a new party dubbed “Likud B,” aimed at creating a more “statesmanlike” alternative to the ruling party, which would eschew some of the extreme populist elements of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s current party and cater to right-wing voters who assign blame to the premier for the failures that enabled Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023.

The report came a day after Erdan, a lifelong Likud member who served as an MK and minister in Netanyahu governments for decades, publicly confirmed that he is considering establishing a new right-wing party to compete with Likud, saying in an interview with Radio 103FM that he sees himself as a potential future prime minister after Netanyahu leaves political life.

In a recent conversation with The Times of Israel, a political source with knowledge of the discussions about the formation of the new party said that it aims to establish a right-wing Zionist coalition focused on economic recovery, security, and settlements, which could “rein in the extremists” and include centrist elements as well. The new party would also support a more moderate judicial reform without the “political dispute” inherent in Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s approach.

The new party would be willing to sit with former prime minister Naftali Bennett and Yashar chair Gadi Eisenkot — but not The Democrats’ Yair Golan, who is “not Zionist,” the source claimed; Golan is a former IDF deputy chief of staff. The sources added that its members would also be willing to partner with Netanyahu and far-right figures like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir.

This willingness, the source explained, is based on an assessment that they would be able to moderate the worst impulses of the far-right by taking the kingmaker role currently held by the Haredi parties, which they do not want in a coalition.

If neither the coalition nor the opposition “can make up a coalition without us, then we can force them to sit together,” the source asserted, calling Netanyahu’s Likud a “personality-based,” rather than a “values-based” party.

“The only coalition the party will join would be a broad Zionist coalition,” the source added.